Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy.
Notes: Still using notepad for the time being. I might just stick with it. Or I might not. I haven't really decided.
FIC START!
Canti leaned up against her headboard, with a fire-lit lamp sitting there on her nightstand, carefully pouring over every page of that book. If she was going to find any sort of answers regarding as to what to do next, this was it. Of course, she hadn't spent time reading her mother tongue in far too long. She had to have a pad of paper and a pencil nearby to write down what she could work out just to translate it. She couldn't help but wonder if her ability to read this ancient language was fading from her mind. It was a part of who she was, so she didn't want to forget it. Aside from being from the old extinct tribe, there wasn't really much to her identity, which was something she always wanted to know more about. How could she be true to herself, if she never really knew who she was? The concept was infuriating. That kept her glued to the text. The pages were thin, many of them ripped or faded. A sign of its age. The authenticity that it was ancient. She was supposed to be an Ancient Mysidian, but really, she didn't know what that meant. She toiled many hours with that book.
Kain was there with her, though he didn't say anything. He read other books that he found in her room. Stuff about the history of flight across all realms, and how applying those studies would help those that were outside the flow of time. He found books about dragoons, too. There was a whole section about himself, which made him feel uncomfortable. Apparently, he was one of the most famous dragoons in all of history! This made him much more ashamed of his actions during the Crystal War, and of his dark side seventeen years later during the Creator's attack on his homeworld. He realized quickly, though, that the reason he had attained the rank of Holy Dragoon was because he didn't carry around the weight of his bad decisions and experiences, so he had to not cling to that feeling as he had for so long. He was just as curious to know about things from outside the flow of time. How fascinating it was!
Soon, he heard Canti's heavy breathing. He looked up from where he sat on the floor next to her bookshelf, noticing that they'd spent all this quiet time reading that the stars were all ready twinkling outside the window. He walked over to her, gently taking the pencil out of her hand and placing it on her nightstand. He did her the favor of marking where she was in the book before also moving it.
"...what are you doing?" she asked sleepily.
"Rest now," he said, bending down to kiss her forehead. "You can study this more tomorrow."
"But I wanted..." she could barely keep a thought in her head, she was so exhausted. "...to..."
"To?"
"...make love... with you..."
Kain did not expect her to insist on that. He hoped she would forget it in her search for answers. One track mind, this one. "You're much too exhausted for... that," he said as he blushed, grabbing her blanket to tuck her in. "Sleep now, and perhaps we'll get to that once all your study is finished. All right?"
"...all right," she agreed, allowing herself to be overtaken by sleep.
He reached for under the bed, finding both an extra cot and a treasure chest. Kain didn't even want to think what would be in a treasure chest underneath her bed. He knew the activities that Balthier and even Minwu engaged in with her, meaning there were tools for that exact purpose within. He left that where it was to pull out the cot and extra bedding, spreading it out enough so he could sleep, too. Any other man would have crawled into bed with her, and she'd have wanted that for sure, but Kain wasn't quite ready to make that jump yet. There was too much. Of something. He wasn't exactly sure what that something was, but it held him back from going further into the romantic aspect of their relationship. He cared for her, and he wasn't lying when he told her that he loved her. Still. As he prepared his cot and blew out the candle within the lantern to make the only light within the room come from the moon right outside the window, he lost himself in thought about that. Exactly what was it that kept him from going further with Canti?
It didn't take long for his eyelids to grow heavy. As he began to drift off to dreamland, there was a knock at the door. To keep Canti from having to wake up, he answered the door.
"Message for Keeper Canti," the guy said, putting the letter into Kain's hand.
"Is that so?" he muttered tiredly, turning back in with a loud yawn. Normally, he'd never have let that sound out of his mouth, but after living here for so long, he hadn't been so uptight about his formal manners. Perhaps that was just the time he spent around these younger keepers manifesting. Honestly, this whole experience changed who he was. It couldn't help him remembering what Canti told him and everyone else earlier, though. Eventually, they'd all have to go back. Kain put the letter on the nightstand and quietly slipped between the covers, letting sleep overtake him as well.
Cid Highwind was a man of science. He could use magic, when it made sense. Equipping materia made sense. It was a magic born of a scientific practice. Equip a stone filled with power from the planet and be granted those powers based on the kind of energy within that stone. He could handle that. But when he thought about how magic worked outside of his home realm, he couldn't wrap his head around it. He tried to cast a cure spell on Canti once while they were in a completely different realm, and without having materia on him to do it, he could not manifest that power. He couldn't access the White Wind spell without having a materia that absorbed the ability from a monster and then repeated it whenever he needed it, either. Cid was classified then as a pure dragoon, like his forefathers. Those who fought with aerial tactics, their spears being the main attraction to their battle style. As he sat out in the night, staring up at the night sky, he couldn't help but retrace his steps from just being within the Seventh Realm as the self-proclaimed captain of Rocket Town to advising other dragoons here within a university beyond the flow of time. He adopted one of their members as his own daughter and loved her as if he was the one who fathered her. But hearing her say those things in her mother tongue that he didn't understand... proclaiming her heritage as more than just the daughter of some failed astronaut. It made him think deeply about their relationship. Was he nothing more than a replacement for the family she lost? Did she really take that much pride in being the last of her kind? Or was that just to force Mateus to recognize her status as someone just as high up in the chain of command in their world? She must have been torn up inside, poor girl.
"Excuse me," a voice said behind him.
Cid turned his head just a little to see the shining Emperor they'd help save before. "Now I reckon that's the most polite thing you've ever said to anyone in your entire life," he said quietly. "How can I help you, oh great sir?"
"While I do not expect you all to treat me as the royalty that I am, I do believe I am owed a certain amount of respect," the Emperor growled at him. "I wish to speak with the maiden from earlier."
"There were two girls in the party," Cid said, shaking his head. He knew who the man wanted to speak to, but he couldn't help playing around with him a bit. "Which one?"
"How can you be so daft?"
Cid shrugged. "I'm just an airship pilot and engineer," he said. "Not one of you royal types."
"I wish to speak with the maiden with blue hair," the Emperor insisted.
"Ah. You wanna speak with my daughter."
"You do not carry the essence from our home realm. How can you be her father?"
"Long story short, she was abandoned by her birth father and I took up the mantle because if she needs anything in this life, it's a family," Cid said, turning to address the Emperor face to face. "I don't care who you are within the realm you came from, you aren't going to mess around with a Highwind. Any of us."
"A maggot with pride is still a maggot."
"You calling my baby girl a maggot?"
"No. Excuse me for confusing you. I was referring to you."
Cid stuck his right arm out and summoned his Venus Gospel into his hand. "I bet this maggot can kick your ass," he said, taking his battle stance.
"While I would thoroughly enjoy searing your insides with electricity until you cease breathing, I highly doubt the maiden with the blue hair would speak to me if I were to harm one of her companions. Especially if your bond is as you say, you being her adopted father," the Emperor said, refusing to point his staff at the angry father who stood before him. "I wish for you to arrange an audience with her as soon as possible."
"Is there a particular reason why you wanna speak with my daughter?" Cid asked.
"There are many reasons, but first and foremost, I wish to speak with her further regarding the crystal melody."
"She even said that it isn't a thing. Why do you insist that it is, even if she says that doesn't exist?"
"She must be unaware. Living here, she hasn't received the full education befitting one of the status she detailed before," the Emperor said quietly. "I spoke earlier to someone who carries the same power that surges from within her. He also had blue curls atop his crown. The young man said that he tried to bring it out of her, but he was unsuccessful."
Cid unclasped his hand, causing his spear to vanish back to the keeping place of all the weaponry. He had spoken with Cezre, Canti's older brother. He took a deep breath as he thought about that. One of the people Canti had completely forgotten about was his older brother. 'That punk has no right to say anything regarding my daughter," he grumbled. "Asshole tried to kill her to trigger some memories or something. He's the reason, the sole reason, why she ended up trying to have herself erased from existence! If it wasn't for him, that whole battle against Ciomi would not have happened!"
The Emperor sighed. "I told him that the crystal melody cannot be found through methods of fear and violence. It's a mechanism to prevent it from falling into hands that would use it for the wrong purposes. One can only learn the crystal melody through true love. There is a reason why my father coveted a Starsinger so dearly, and when he was unable to have her, he grew so hellbent on destroying the entire world." He looked up at the sky for a moment, the twinkling starlights above them providing no solace whatsoever. "I must apologize for what my family has done to hers, sincerely."
"And if she doesn't want to see you?"
"I completely understand if she would not. I have until two days from now to find placement with a keeper. The young man with the blue curls told me to speak with Canti before being assigned. If she will allow it, I can transfer to her team with no complications."
"And you want that."
"The only way I can help her realize her true potential and overcome the pain she bears within is if I were to be at her side, Sir...?"
"I'm Cid Highwind. Ace pilot and airship engineer from the Seventh Realm. Call me Cid."
Mateus nodded. "Cid, then. I expect I need no introduction."
"I expect you don't," Cid said. "You're the Emperor of Palamecia. I'm sure I overheard your name somewhere... oh, right, when Minwu was cursing your existence. Mateus."
"I do not believe Minwu will be all right working alongside me, but because I am within this realm and not assigned to a keeper, I cannot access any of my magic at present," Mateus explained. "I am not dangerous in my current state. Allow that to put you at ease, overprotective 'adopted' father." The fact that he stepped on the word adopted only pissed Cid off that much more.
"...all right. I'll tell her you want to talk."
"Thank you,"
"I wasn't finished yet. I'll tell her you want to talk, under one condition."
Mateus nodded. "Pray do tell."
Cid glared at him. "Don't get the wrong idea. If you're going to work with her, and that is your true intention, then I'll speak on your behalf. My daughter needs to heal and is emotionally weak right now. If you take advantage of this weakness because of some personal gain, I will not hesitate to completely ruin the history of the Second Realm by splitting your skull with an airship propeller."
Mateus scoffed. "Oh. Forgive me." That tone of voice. He didn't really care of Cid forgave him or not. The Emperor took his leave of the conversation after he muttered, "I accept your terms."
But Cid, even though he didn't believe he was a terribly smart man, could tell that Mateus could honestly not give a shit about what he thought. He sat back down on the bench where he had been sitting. only to pull out a cigarette and light it up. "I'll tell her, but I don't trust ya," he said quietly. He picked up a book he had sitting on the bench with him that he fully intended to read much earlier than this. There was no way he'd be going to check on Canti at the moment, because if he knew her, he all ready knew that now wasn't a time to disturb her. Either she finally had the chance to climb on Kain and have her way with him, or the two of them were curled up asleep. He flipped to the page that had been previously marked and started reading it carefully. He didn't know how early he was going to have to be up the next day, but it didn't matter. He wasn't going to be able to sleep with his mind so wrapped up in everything here lately. It hadn't been a month since Canti had applied for Erasure and Kain saved her from it when no one else seemed to be able to do it. "...Record Materia is sort of like materia from back home, but... it doesn't get power from the lifestream energy within..." he said as his eyes traced along the page.