Author's Note: So, this chapter is all about Ragnarok. :D I like to think all gods (fal'Cie, Occuria, espers, etc) have human counter-parts, which in turn gives them genders. My version of Ragnarok is male, unlike FF13's version (Balthier transforming into a female Ragnarok would be...odd xD).
Most of these scenes are just fragments, since they're just memories that Ragnarok has. xD Kind of a different format than I'm used to...Notice the changes in Ragnarok's personality in each fragment after the first one. ;)
Btw, apparently there's rumors going around that there might be an FF13 sequel, like the sequel to FF10. D: Whaaaat? (Just another excuse for me to want to play as Lightning~...As long as they don't ruin her character like they did to Yuna. -_-)
I am so on a roll, The Giant Daifuku and Joshua Chung. :D Two chapters in one day!
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Chapter Seven
Eternal
For as long as he could remember, Ragnarok held a dislike for all things god-like. True, he himself was one of them, but the fal'Cie and the Occuria were beings he preferred to avoid all together. It didn't help much that they were the ones who had created him in the first place. The ones that had held him captive.
There were many fal'Cie, more than any hume could imagine. He had only met a few in his time, and all of them had their own distinct qualities.
Titan was a brute man with a passion for pitting his allies against each other. He had been the one to propose the creation of Ragnarok, hoping to find a way to finally destroy the fal'Cie of Cocoon and the Occuria of Ivalice.
Dahaka was sly, sneaky boy who had a taste for terrorizing the other fal'Cie. A trickster of sorts, as many called him. Ragnarok never liked being watched over by the boy; he took a liking to throwing spells at the fal'Cie's pet.
Bismark was a woman Ragnarok never could understand. She claimed she was a free bird, unable to withstand the strains of being a fal'Cie, condemned to watch over her part of Gran Pulse for eternity.
Atomos was never around whenever it was his turn to watch over Ragnarok, leaving one of the others to take his place.
As for Anima...Ragnarok liked to believe that he charmed her every time they were with each other. To think, even the gods could be fooled.
There were other fal'Cie he heard of, the ones who stood guard over Cocoon. But they were considered as enemies to the fal'Cie of Pulse, and therefore they were enemies of Ragnarok. And, the Occuria? They were the brothers of Ragnarok's commanders, yet they were spoken of even less than Cocoon's gods.
Yet he had been told of one Cocoon fal'Cie: Orphan. For some reason, he had a feeling he would get to meet that fal'Cie one day. And when that day came, he would finally get the chance to kill a god. Little did he know that chance would come when he was bound to a hume form.
Days seemed to be never ending when he was kept in his cage. The area resembled the land of the Occuria; an empty sky surrounded by mediocre guardian beings kept in statues. There would always be one fal'Cie watching over him, giving off the feeling that even they knew the guardian beings wouldn't hold him back if he tried to escape.
A monster. That was what they called him.
He didn't understand why they all thought he was a monster. Every time he looked at his reflection in the water below his cage, he knew that he had to be hume. He looked like one, at least. Black hair tied back into a short ponytail, crimson eyes, and tawny skin. He wore a simple white blouse and loose silver pants, and he preferred to walk around in bare feet (that is, whenever he was allowed to walk around the fal'Cie's dominion).
Bismark told him that he was only their pet and 'naught more', while Titan merely used him for 'target practice'. At least Anima was gentle with him. She told him, during one of her visitations, that the Cocoon fal'Cie were growing curious about him; mainly the one called Barthandelus. When he asked who this 'Barthandelus' was, she merely kissed his lips and silenced him. He didn't dare ask the others, fearing that they would lash out at him for asking too many questions.
It was during one of Dahaka's visits when he learned more about his so-called destiny.
"They say you're meant to destroy the other world," the boy told him, flicking a dust of Mist from his coat. All the fal'Cie preferred to talk with their minds rather than their lips; Ragnarok found it hard to figure out why, however. He was casually laying on the pile of majestic pillows across from Ragnarok, staring at the endless sky above their heads.
"Other world?" he asked, fiddling with the chains around his feet. "There are more worlds than just Gran Pulse and Cocoon?"
"The higher ups didn't tell you that? Shame. I'd thought you'd know more by now." Dahaka grinned, his pale eyes unblinking. "Our brothers, the Occuria. They're afraid you're going to destroy their precious Ivalice. So, they've devised up a plan to protect their world."
Ragnarok looked up. "I thought that they only had a dream world. A place like this."
"I forgot godly pets are dense when they're first created. Ivalice is a lot like Gran Pulse, only not as 'up-to-date'. There's air ships, armies...They've got some King under their control, too."
"It sounds better than here."
"Just you wait, pet. You'll get your chance at life soon enough."
It wasn't hard to see the worry in Anima's eyes whenever she came to him. She would ask for him to hold her close, to comfort her, but he would always remind her that gods weren't meant to have 'feelings' for others.
"You have your humes who praise you each day," Ragnarok said to her, twirling a lock of her hair between his fingers. "So why is it that you need your pet to give you a sense of relaxation?"
"I know not," she answered. "My Oerbans only praise me because they believe I will turn against them if they disobey me."
He frowned. "And, you don't believe I won't do the same to you? Kill you, lest you please me?"
She turned toward him, touching a gentle hand to his cheek and leaning close to him. "Foolish Ragnarok. It is I who pleases you."
When Ragnarok attempted to escape his cage the first time, he was forced to be put under the guard of more fiends than before. When he tried escaping the second time, he was sentenced to be watched over by Titan until he was 'back to being a simple-minded pet'. The beatings didn't bother him after a while, and he almost considered trying to leave one more until just to see if he could get a reaction from the others.
But Anima warned him to be careful, fearing that his actions would prompt the other fal'Cie to want to destroy him.
He didn't know if that was meant to make him stop and remain calm, or try escaping once more. Death seemed to be a better thing than life.
Bismark was kind enough to tell him that the Occuria's plans in Ivalice were in motion. They had given stones of Mist to their Dynast-King, King Raithwall, and with that they had planted their seed for absolute control over the going-ons in Ivalice.
Ragnarok wondered if such a thing was capable in their worlds; to take control of a hume in order to obtain any power desired.
He watched her pace the floor for what seemed to be two days before either of them spoke. Anima, her long white hair and silver dress flowing as she walked, turned to face Ragnarok when he smirked widely. He leaned against the palm of his hand, occasionally glancing down at the chains around his feet.
She spoke, as always, without actually moving her lips. "The others," she said. "They are uneasy about what is to come."
"Are they?" he asked in return, his lip quirking so slightly. "More talk of Cocoon and Ivalice, I presume?"
She only nodded.
"The best intentions invite the worst kinds of trouble, I'm afraid." Ragnarok sat up, pulling the hood from his head and meeting her gaze. "One day the fools will learn that even gods have their weaknesses. I thought the events in Ivalice would have taught them differently."
"The Occuria gave their Stones to the man in whom they saw power. We, too, seek a deity of such power."
"The Maker, no doubt."
"To summon her. Myself and the others wish to give our power to the humes of Oerba Village. My village." Anima sat down beside him, resting a pale hand upon his cheek. "They say you are to be summoned by them, and sent to destroy Cocoon in hopes of awakening the Maker."
"Ah. So I will soon be free from my bonds?"
"So they say. I fear that once you are summoned, you will not return to me."
Ragnarok draped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close and kissing the corner of her mouth. "For you, my dear, I will return. Whoever the fal'Cie choose as their new slaves shan't keep me forever. I will be free, and so will you."
"We gods are free," she told him, placing her hands on his shoulders when she sat in his arms. "It's the ones who choose to hold us back that think as such."
'The task had been set, your time anew.'
Those were the words Ragnarok had heard in his mind the moment Anima had branded two humes as l'Cie - the slaves to the fal'Cie's bidding. They were to be the ones who would summon him to destroy Cocoon. He, and the two l'Cie were nothing more than tools of the fal'Cie and their Maker.
Anima tried to reassure him countless times that he was not a puppet to their cause, but he could see right through her. But, as it was meant to be, he willed himself to another place whenever she came to his cage, pleading for his comfort and love. When she kissed him, he felt nothing. When she touched him, he felt nothing. He only waited.
He would wait until death came for him.
'Ragnarok took wing; make to smite Cocoon, and thereby deliver us our everlasting peace. But Her Providence would not let it be. The Goddess pitied the fools who so blindly bowed to Lindzei's will, and so She robbed Ragnarok of power, putting the l'Cie to an early crystal sleep, Focus yet incomplete.
- Sermons of the seeress Paddra Nsu-Yeul'
And so he slept for many years, lost in an abyss of shadows like the two l'Cie taken with him, and waited until the Occurian Gerun spoke his name.
"The Divine, stripped of power at its time of birth. A pity, so easily taken from the heights of destruction. Come, Ragnarok. You seek redemption, a chance to find eternal freedom. Here, I give you this task."
Ragnarok stayed in the place where he sat, rubbing his hands in a repeated motion. He could still feel his claws in his fingertips, just waiting to be unleashed.
"You fear the beast within? It is what you are. I can give you a hume form, and with it you will be free."
"A hume?" he asked, opening his eyes. "Is there such a hume that can withstand my power?"
"Perhaps. Or, perhaps not."
He scowled, turning his head away from the voice. "I refuse your offer. Being a hume is something I don't want. Just traveling from one cage to another."
"We will find you a hume, one able to control your powers until the time is right. One who goes against the laws bid before him, one who is free."
Ragnarok ignored the Occurian god, and once again willed himself to another place.
Years passed, and Ragnarok stayed in oblivion until he heard Gerun's voice one last time. It told him of the hume he would inhabit until the two l'Cie from Gran Pulse would summon him once again. A hume from Ivalice, killed in battle and seemingly lost in death's embrace.
And for once, Ragnarok listened to the god and did as he was told.
The hume had been sent to Cocoon, and like him Ragnarok knew nothing of where he was. He was called Ffamran, or at least that was the name he had cast aside years before. He went by a different name, Balthier, but Ragnarok preferred to call him by the name he was born with. No one should forget their true name.
Ffamran allied with humes that became l'Cie, including one that was from Pulse. The one that allowed Ragnarok to fall five hundred years before. A girl from the village Oerba.
The humes, not yet l'Cie at the time, killed Anima in a moment of fury; or, that was what he had heard from the group after awakening in the crystallized lake. He felt nothing at the news of her death, though he wished he could have laughed. It would have been nice to feel something.
Ffamran was quick to follow the one who called himself a hero, not wanting to be left behind in a world not his own. The man was named Snow, and he became a l'Cie in hopes to save the girl he loved. Ragnarok didn't care to listen to the rest of his speech, and instead focused on the woman that had gained Ffamran's attention.
She called herself Lightning, but like Ffamran she had changed her name to run from her past.
Claire.
Whatever Ffamran felt for her, Ragnarok felt it, too. The hume was thinking about her even after she left, wondering if she would be able to live long enough to see him again. But Ragnarok, however, knew that she had a destiny of her own. What it was was up to her, and not the fal'Cie that held her back. There was a power within her, and it drew him to her; calling him.
Someday, she would be his.
It wasn't long until the l'Cie had found the other Oerban woman, though unlike them her brand was inactive. She had been the one who had turned into the monster, who had summoned Ragnarok from his cage. And he could see that she would do it again if it meant keeping those she cared for safe. Ragnarok wondered if he would ever do the same for someone, if he could ever give himself up for one mere hume. Not a god; they didn't deserve his power or his sacrifice. A hume would be worthy, wouldn't they?
Claire was worthy. He didn't need a god to tell him that. She was more than what she seemed to be, and she was willing to give her own life for someone. For Ffamran.
Ragnarok wished she would look at him the way she looked at the hume he inhabited. They had a connection with one another, something no one else would understand. It was unfair, he thought, that he wouldn't have the chance to take her in his arms like Ffamran would.
Then he arrived. Barthandelus, a Cocoon fal'Cie. The one who had taken the two Oerban l'Cie from their place of slumber and kept them hidden along with Ragnarok.
'Curse his name.'
He revealed the truth to Ffamran and the l'Cie, the truth of the hume's destiny. Ragnarok was almost amused at hearing his words, understanding the confusion and horror his vessel felt at the time. For one to hear they were nothing but a puppet of the gods...He knew it all too well.
But something happened, something that changed everything. Ffamran left the l'Cie, including Lightning, and allowed himself to suffer the same fate he had in Ivalice. He let himself die, and for a while Ragnarok, too, died.
Death was not what he expected. It wasn't freedom, as he had first thought, but it wasn't a cage either. It was simply...nothing.
The Occuria returned, and they spoke to the l'Cie when they found their fallen comrade in the ruins of Oerba Village. They gave Ragnarok and Ffamran life once more, but that time it was different. Ragnarok could feel his power returning to him, and he knew it wouldn't be long until it was his time once more to fully awaken. Ffamran could feel it, too, and that was why he allowed himself to surrender to his feelings for Claire.
When they kissed, Ragnarok felt nothing. But he wished that he could.
When they discovered Orphan, the Oerban l'Cie with the inactive brand transformed into a false copy of Ragnarok after Claire and the others were transformed into Cie'th. Through Ffamran, Ragnarok felt the distress and sadness at the sight of Claire's Cie'th, but he knew that she would return. The false Ragnarok failed, and the others returned to their true forms not long after.
Orphan was defeated, and Ragnarok was glad to have finally killed a fal'Cie; the gods who had caged him for so long. He knew it was time for his freedom to arise, but instead he was caged once more.
The two Oerbans transformed into the complete form of the false Ragnarok, and when they transformed Ffamran was sent back to his world. As for the real Ragnarok, he was bound completely to the hume; unable to retain his true form and destroy the rest of the fal'Cie.
Unable to stay with Claire.
'When our earthly vessels meet their end, the souls they housed must leave this world. Would the path of their migration not be the same as our departed gods? Must they not pass through the same doorway the Divine employed to reach that place that lies beyond?
If this is the case, it stands to reason that, should a great many lives at once be cut short, a flood of souls would surge through the aforementioned portal. The Door would be thrown wide, and perhaps we might even glimpse the gleaming light of the Divinity beyond.
- On the Nature of fal'Cie'
After returning to Ivalice, Ffamran couldn't see that the Occuria had reset time to before he had been killed. Ragnarok saw this, and understood that their were still gods in the world that needed to be killed; to be destroyed.
It wasn't long until he found a way to retrain complete strength. Ffamran was not as strong as he claimed to be, and was easy to control. Ragnarok was able to transform into the beast and devour humes whenever he needed strength, whenever Ffamran needed strength. Harboring a god took its toll on his body, and eventually he would fade.
Yet that man from Cocoon, Snow, arrived in Ivalice without any idea as to who his old comrade was. Ffamran was angered by this and made it easier for Ragnarok to take control. Snow was a tool of the Occuria, sent to their world to guide the princess of Dalmasca to her destiny.
Ragnarok wouldn't allow that to happen, and he would have transformed and killed the princess and her 'hero, but something held him back from harming either of them. Ffamran wore Claire's necklace, given to him at the time of his death on Gran Pulse. It kept Ragnarok from transforming any time he wished it, and held him back from obtaining the freedom he desired. It was the same way with Snow's presence. Anytime he was around Ffamran, Ragnarok couldn't transform.
That is, until they traveled to Giruvegan, the land of the Occuria.
The princess had been given her Treaty Blade by the Occuria, and was informed that one of her companions was harboring the beast known as the Divine. At that, Ffamran willingly let Ragnarok take over and prepared to kill both the princess and Snow. But she drew her Sword of Kings and killed the beast and Ffamran.
It seemed that everything ended at that moment.
But Snow, foolish Snow went to the Occuria and begged to bring back his friend. He agreed to help the princess in her cause, and vowed to find some way to rid the world of Ragnarok.
The traitors! The Occuria had been the ones who brought Ragnarok to Ffamran, giving both of them a second chance at life. Because of them, he had been torn from his slumber and taken to a world where he was caged. It was then that he swore to end their control over Ivalice, to aid Ffamran and the princess in their cause.
He remained under control for the rest of that journey, but when Ffamran's life was in danger he took a risk. He transformed when the hume fell unconscious, and took both he and his partner to safety when the air ship, the Bahamut, crashed.
And as if it was a reward to Ragnarok for saving their lives, Ffamran returned to Gran Pulse...And Claire.
'Children of Hallowed Pulse scour earth, searching substance for the Door. Those of Fell Lindzei harvest souls, combing ether for the same. So have I seen.
The Door, once shut, was locked away, with despair its secret key; sacrifice, the one hope of seeing it unsealed.
When the twilight of the gods at last descends upon this world, what emerges from the unseeable expanse beyond that Door will be but music, and the devoid of words: the lamentations of the Goddess Etro, as She sobs Her song of grief.
- Author unknown'
Lightning leaned her head against the window of her bed room, listening to the rain pattering against the glass. She touched the spot where her l'Cie brand once was, and closed her eyes. Snow was gone, as was Fran, and Balthier went missing around the same time as Serah. For once, she was alone. And it was all her fault.
But, unknown to her, Balthier walked out from the shadows and stood outside her window, staring up at her. The rain fell against his warm face, but he didn't dare move from where he stood. He moved his gaze toward the thick clouds above, and allowed himself to smile faintly before closing his eyes.
"I came back," Ragnarok murmured. "I came back for you."
This took me longer than I expected. o.o Ragnarok...is so damn confusing! Oy.
