"So there's nothing I can do to convince you?"

"After what you've done here? No, I don't think so."

He gestured stepped over the bodies of the guards outside her door. Brave souls who had refused to abandon their posts, who had known that their service was to a greater ideal than mere country or ideology. She only regretted that their reward had been so harsh.

"It's regrettable, but I'm sure someone of your intellect must understand our reasons. No room for vipers in our little nest anymore."

"So we were poisonous snakes, were we? I can think of at least one person, here, who fits the description more aptly."

She sipped from her cup as she looked down on the view from the high-up windows of her office. The faint clash of metal striking metal and a dull roar at the edge of hearing were the only signs that there was anything out of the ordinary in the pristine facility. "I will admit your reasoning is obtuse. All this trouble and pain, and for what?"

Her companion waved his hand to encompass the room they were standing in, the building, the country, the world. "The march of history."

A raised eyebrow. "That's going to be your excuse, is it? Your grand declaration of manifest destiny: 'Because we can and you can't stop us'?"

The man shrugged. "Well, his excuse more than mine, obviously, but we'll be quite happy to go along with his tawdry dreams for now."

"Implying you have greater ones?"

He smiled, as if replying to a private joke only they knew. "But of course."

A bone-shuddering crash distracted her and she looked down to see a giant black three-headed beast smash trough the concrete walls into the square below. Cerberus twisted around in the air somehow and managed to land on all fours. The Guardian howled in rage as a second monstrous form blasted through the concrete, its elaborately-carved hand-cannons spitting fire as it nimbly dodged the massive swipes of the huge dog's claws.

The half-equine, half-woman creature scored deep marks down Cerberus' flank with the twisted and pointed ends of her arms. The dog spun around, tail swinging around as the monster moved too slowly, and caught it and sent it flying through the planted garden of the square.

Back to the business at hand. "And would your courtesy extend to telling me these dreams?"

He smiled and shook his head sadly. "No, I don't think so. Frankly I think you're getting the better end of the deal here. A chance to get in on the ground floor."

Anger simmered just below the surface, but she steadied herself as she drank. Control had always been her watchword. "You'll excuse me of course if I don't see it the same way."

The ground splintered and shuddered as the quake ran through the ground towards the enemy. It tensed as the ground underneath it cracked and jumped aside, only to find Cerberus had already leaped and was headed right for it.

The monster screamed as the massive jaws sunk into its neck. Three pairs of dagger-like teeth began to sink deep into the quasi-flesh of the thing and Cerberus howled with joy. His joy however was short-lived when sliding doors opened and blue-suited soldiers swarmed out. He felt the itch of small-arms fire on his side and swung around, letting go as he did so and sending the chimeric thing sailing into them, impacting with the satisfying sound of breaking bones and crushed flesh.

"Ever since we came up I've always respected you more than your more…impulsive…comrades." He put out his hands in front of him as if he were nothing more than a man making a business proposition. "Think it over logically. Your little party will be wiped out before long, there's no doubt about it." He began to tick off points on his fingers. "Timber's people will go to the forests and pretend to be a relevant insurgency again, Balamb is a tourist destination for bored pensioners. Winhill is a non-entity, the Shumi will sit down and do what they're told when the new order arrives, and-"

"Esthar," she said with a thin smile of her own. "What about Esthar?"

Cerberus didn't hesitate. He charged the tangled mass of Galbadian troops, those too slow or witless to move out of the way falling victim to his crushing jaws and massive limbs. While all three of his heads were busy his opponent took the chance to extricate itself and blasted away at Cerberus with its free arm. He roared in pain as one of his heads caught the full brunt of the blast and was torn to shreds, dark blood spewing from the shattered remains.

Cerberus staggered backwards as the demon's assault continued, wounds opening in his side. His anger only rose and the concrete floor buckled under him as he roared. The creature met his roar with its own, tinged with triumph. The firing ceased as it swung its arms, ornate red-metal blades scything through the air and slamming into Cerberus' sides.

The man's smile became a grin. "What's one nation against the world?" He leaned forward again. "As much as he wishes he was, Fury isn't omnipresent. He's going to need governors and leaders, real leaders, to take over while he sits in Deling and rules the world."

For a single millisecond her scorn shone through the calm exterior. "And you're going to offer me a position as one of these governors? Caraway's tame hound so he can indulge his megalomania in peace?" She stood behind her desk imperiously. "Don't make me laugh."

He tried one last time. "It will be a golden age. A world united under one banner. No more reason for conflict when everyone is in the family."

Blood soaked the commons now. Cerberus was putting up what defence it could but not enough, not enough, and he was driven back under the relentless assault. The square was a ruin, concrete and rebar torn like soil, and the planted gardens ploughed up under the force of the battle and thrown over everything. The creature cried out in triumph and drove its blades deep into Cerberus neck, and a second head fell to the ground with an obscene thunk.

Finally, a little peace and quiet, he thought as he got up on shaky limbs and growled as menacingly as he could manage at his attacker, a face out of history he had thought left far behind. But there was, at least, some small consolation that there was no shame in losing to the best.

She shook her head. "Until your own plans come to fruition, you mean?"

A shrug. "All good things come to an end. At least this way humanity will go out at the top of their game. A shining capstone on all those centuries spent crawling out of the mud and soil of your ancestors."

She put her hand to the glass and looked down into the square, suppressing a shudder as she saw the tableaux before her.

It was over. The great beast lay on the ground surrounded by a pool of black blood. The creature towered over him, blades raised to the sky and screaming victory. Even as she watched the great hound my old friend, I'm so sorry began to lose form and dissipate, and within seconds he was gone. Forever. Along with the friends she had made here in this facility, cut down when they proclaimed loyalty to her and her ideals, rather than to a corrupt and power-mad dictator. They had paid for their loyalty with their life.

Footsteps grew louder as she listened and the door burst open behind her, the opposite method of the man standing before her, who had walked through her security like a ghost to knock politely at her door and make his offer. They were already pointing their rifles at her and she felt the fear begin to break through. But she had a reputation to maintain. "Unfortunately it seems my next appointment has arrived." She drew the line however at reaching out to shake the hand he had extended.

Melanthios sighed. He'd never harboured any real hope. But Caraway had insisted he make the effort to convert her. More than his errant sister/comrade he knew that loyalty, true loyalty, the kind that would make a human throw themselves in front of blades and bullets for another, could never be bought with cheap baubles. When he spoke there was almost some regret in his voice, but whether it was genuine or one last roll of the die was impossible to tell. "I'm just sorry we couldn't come to an agreement." The only sound in the room was the click of removed safeties as the faceless emotionless drones levelled their weapons. "Is there anything you'd like me to pass on? Any last request to be granted?"

Xu turned to face the man in black, and on her face there was only a smile, and in her voice there was no fear. "Leonhart's blade through your rotten soul is the only request I have, and I don't need your assurances that he'll manage to grant it."

"As you will. Fire."


Olesia's crystal dawn.

Ifrit's death shook the city to its core, and the gap he had left behind demanded to be filled by a like presence. Something had stepped into that empty place in the world, and now the unholy intruder stalked the city.

Leviathan had retreated to the inner sanctum of the city to observe the carnage as his comrades fought. He had never felt the lust for battle that some of his brothers and sisters felt and was content to watch as the battle ran through the imaginary city.

The sky cracked as Quezacotl blasted lightning down into the houses below, those inhabitants of lesser power taking refuge in their homes. Crystal dwellings shattered as thunder tore down into the fiery gigyas, who could do nothing more than rage at his attacker from the ground and smash apart the city with his mace. Leviathan knew that he was relatively weak, separated from his own home by two dimensions. His assault was a symbol he knew. An attack on their very home, a spit in the eye of the Guardians and their city:

We are here now, and you are not safe, even in your crystal-spun fortress.

As he watched the fire-demon faded into nothing, not from death but simply called back down to the side of its master. Quezacotl screeched angrily at the charred spot where it had stood and cursed its own powerlessness.

Leviathan felt wind buffet around him and twisted around to face Bahamut as the great dragon reared.

"One More Falls."

His intellect only needed a second to work on the problem. "Cerberus is dead." he replied. Then Xu Tyyne with him. Pacis ut cado, fellow warrior. He had liked Xu, although she had never had the gift for magic like her friends had and thus hadn't been able to maintain him in the physical world.

"The Gigyas Will Not Be The First, Now That The Threshold Is Exposed."

Both of them knew that Cerberus' position as watcher of Olesia's entrance had been symbolic, but in the city symbols mattered. The death of the gate-guardian was the equivalent of a smashed fortress door, an open invitation for anyone to walk in…

"Assuming they know where the entrance is," Leviathan said.

Bahamut didn't ask for him to clarify. They had known each other long enough. "Things Fall Apart, The Centre Cannot Hold." He reared up, spreading his wings over the amphitheatre as if to intimidate the sea-serpent. "Go Down To The World. Tell Them Their Greatest Allies Are Under Threat."

Leviathan nodded but his thoughts were elsewhere. Is that genuine fear in your voice, old drake? Could it be after all this time spouting nonsense of independence and magical supremacy you actually need help from these frail humans?

"And Leviathan?" Bahamut said.

"Hmm?"

"Tell Shiva That Secrecy Is A Luxury We Can No Longer Afford. Do You Understand Me?"

Leviathan bristled. Do you take me for a fool? "Yes."

Bahamut turned away. His orders had been given. There was no reason for him to pay further attention to his fellow Guardian. "Then Go."

As Leviathan faded out of the city and into base reality, Bahamut took flight and left the central forum to soar above the city. He felt his anger dissipate as he flew over his realm, the scars left by Belias' assault already healing. They would be gone by the morning. It galled him that he had to rely on the pale apes for assistance, but as flew he reflected that even pawns had their uses. Of course, the loss of a pawn was hardly important. Edea Kramer had shown Bahamut the human dalliance called 'Chess' once and the metaphor appealed to him.

It did not occur to the Guardian king that his opponents might be playing a very different game.


Selphie found Zell in the training dojo by following the dull thuds. SeeD trainees were looking at her worriedly as she approached the door and she put on a smile for them. "I'll deal with this, no sweat."

Most of them looked relieved but one of them (and from the looks of his muscles Selphie guessed he was one of Zell's trainees) still looked worried. "I've never seen him like this before Ma'am."

She waved away his objections and pushed open the door to the dojo. Instantly the sounds intensified and she walked in before the others could notice. No sense getting them even more worked up. Worry was contagious.

Zell was alone; close up against a training dummy and punching it so hard she could almost feel the force of it from the other side of the room. As she walked up to him she could hear him swearing under his breath.

"God-"

"Heya Zell-"

"Damn-"

"Zell?"

"Galbadian-"

"Zell!"

"SCUM!"

"ZELL!"

The dummy finally shattered under the man's fists and he looked around in surprise. "Sephy?"

"I think you got him good Zell."

He looked back at the dummy and looked surprised. "Guess…so…" he panted. He collapsed to the ground. "Just can't think…of anything else to do."

Selphie sat down next to him. "Zell…"

"They're killing us out there and we're just sat here, doing nothing."

"We're not doing nothing, Zell."

"We're doing nothing," he repeated angrily.

She had never heard Zell like this. Even when the report had came through and Quistis had openly wept, Selphie knew she would do her grieving privately. Zell hadn't moved a muscle until the gathering was over, and then had just walked out of the room without a word.

"All my life I wanted to be the strongest Sephy, to protect my friends you know? Now here I am, I made it to the top, and yet all I can do it sit here and pound on these goddamn wooden dummies."

Selphie leaned against Zell's shoulder. "It'll be okay in the end Zell."

He looked across at her in surprise. "You really believe that?"

She nodded confidently. "I do. We'll win because in the end we're right and they're wrong."

Zell flicked away a piece of wood. It flew across the room and stuck into the wall. "Yeah, well, I just wish we could do something about it right now."

"We're going to Esthar. If anyone knows what to do, President Loire will."

That brought a smile to Zell's face. Selphie's hero-worship of Laguna had never quite faded, even after she and Irvine had got together. Much to Irvine's annoyance. "You think he'll just wave his magic wand and the Galbadians will all go home?"

She laughed. Hey, at least he's smiling now. You still got the magic touch Selphie Tilmitt. "But of course! There's nothing the brave and mighty Sir Laguna can't do!"

"I hear he can't tie his own shoelaces some days."

"Liar!" She laughed and struck out at him playfully.

Zell raised his arms and grimaced in mock terror to ward off her blows. "If he can find his shoes at all."

Laughter echoed through the empty room. At least in one place that afternoon there were still some spirits that no amount of adversity could break


"Xu was the first friend I ever had after the orphanage, before I became a SeeD."

Rinoa was silent. What could she even say?

She wants someone to help her, Squall had said quietly after they went their separate ways. That someone can't be me.

Shiva had been even blunter. We will need her. Make sure she doesn't break.

"You had a home before Garden?" Rinoa asked in surprise.

Moonlight was shining through the window into Quistis' instructor's quarters. The two women were sat at the small kitchen table, an open bottle of wine open in front of them.

Quistis shook her head. "I wouldn't call it a home." Her eyes narrowed slightly. "Just a place I lived at between the orphanage and here."

"Bad memories?"

A nod. "The problem wasn't them, it was me." Quistis lifted her empty hand and a small mote of light appeared on her palm. "It was this, of course."

Blue Magic. Out of all the millions in the world no more than a handful of people were able to use it. Not as powerful as true Sorcery but with a wildness and unpredictable savagery that had taken Rinoa by surprise more than once. A genetic inheritance, passed down by a withering bloodline whose origins were lost to history.

"They were afraid of me."

"I can understand, I-"

"No, you can't." Quistis glanced across at Rinoa's expression and her tone softened. "I was five, Rin, and my new 'parents' were afraid of me. This thing I can do, this gift my real parents left me, it was wild and…unpredictable." She shuddered, some painful memory dragged to the surface after years submerged. "I can't really blame them I suppose. Magic's terrifying stuff to your average man in the street, and here I was a small child who could turn furniture to matchwood from across the room, or heal her own scrapes and bruises, and they were just two normal people and no-one could explain to them how a small girl could do this."

"So you ran away."

"So I ran away. All the way to Balamb."


She steps into the docks unsure of herself, a small child barely into her tenth year who begged and pleaded her way onto the ferry. It's a big place and she doesn't know where to go. She wanted to run away, to the farthest place in the world, and she guesses this is far enough. She's heard about something here, a new place that people with no home can come to.

She spots the other child easily. Even at ten years old Xy Tyyne has a poise and grace that could have shamed some adults. Quistis Trepe (she had never answered to the name her adopted parents had tried to force on her, and eventually they had stopped trying) harbours what confidence she has and walks over. "Heya. You new here as well?"

The raven-haired girl stares back at her for a few seconds before replying. "Yes."

Quistis is nervous. Back at the orphanage she was always the mature one, the one In Charge Of Stuff, but this other girl has her stumped. "Umm… Are you here to see the Garden?"

"Yes."

"Do you want to go see it together?" she blurts out.

But instead of laughing at her, the girl just smiles. "Okay."


"I don't know why Xu joined Garden, she never told me. I guess we were just too lonely kids, and at least this way we could be lonely together." Quistis sighed and took another draw from her glass. "After I was the one who became a SeeD first we drifted apart a little bit. Xu was always the great organiser, she loved making sure everything was just right for everyone. Her own wishes could take a backseat." She leaned back in her chair and smiled at the memories. "She could have been headmaster of Balamb by now."

"You must have loved her a lot."

"We were sisters. Of course, then I met Squall."

Rinoa leaned forward. "Tell me about it." I want to know.

Quistis must have seen Rinoa's eager expression, because she was smiling as she talked. "Oh he wasn't much different from when you first met him."

Rinoa could recall the moment with crystal clarity even years later. "Tall, dark and mysterious."

"Exactly. You can see the appeal." They both laughed. "Of course neither of us remembered each other. I'd already been using Guardians for a couple of years, and Squall…well…what with Ellone and everything I guess he just didn't want to remember."

"No embarrassing stories?" Rinoa teased.

"Nope, none. Of course he hardly ever did anything that would put him at risk of being embarrassed. Not like Seifer. Seifer did anything he wanted and I'm pretty sure he wasn't capable of even feeling the emotion. For a few months Xu was infatuated with him."

"I-what?" Rinoa said in shock.

"I guess we were both looking for someone else to fill that emptiness we both had. Xu found her calling being the Garden's steward, I found Squall. Of course Squall had other ideas." Quistis looked across at Rinoa. "For a while I was jealous of you two. You seemed made for each other. It drove me up the wall how he responded to you, after all the time we'd trained together and he'd barely give me the time of day." There was no anger in her voice, Rinoa just knew she was hearing the truth. "In the end I realised I didn't want Squall because he was Squall, but because he was one more person to help me feel I was part of something, not just all by myself in a sea of strangers."

There is a soft flap of wingbeats on the balcony outside but Rinoa barely registers it. "And now?"

Whatever Quistis is about to say dies on her lips as she glances around. Rinoa turns to see Siren looking nervous and surprised. She's is blushing slightly. "Oh, I'm sorry Quistis I didn't know you had company. I can come back lat-"

Quistis smiles, not just a smile of fond memories or shared laughter but a deeper one. She stands and before she has taken a single step towards the Guardian Rinoa knows.

"Now I have what I've always wanted."

No way. "Umm…I should probably…"

"Rin?"

"Yes?" she says.

She hugs the younger woman. "Thank you." When she disengages some of the hurt has vanished from her eyes. "And don't worry about me so much, okay? Tell Squall he's doing fine."

Rinoa laughs as she pictures Squall's worried expression as he asked her to escort Quistis back to her room. "I think he'll get the hang of it eventually."

"Me too. And Rin?"

"Yeah?"

"You look after him, now." She leans in to whisper in Rinoa's ear. "There's nothing worse than being alone, Rin. Make him see that."

Relief floods through Rinoa as she leaves, and she glances over at Siren. You'll take care of her then?

Siren's smile gives the answer: Always.


"And did you have fun?"

The two are leaning against an APC outside Galbadia Garden. Gunfire can still be heard from inside as the final pockets of resistance are erased. The sharp bangs of the rifles is becoming more and more seldom.

He sighs. "Not really." He had harboured some hope for the Tyyne human, but in the end that stubborn ape pack-loyalty had won out. Pity.

Tisiphone leaned back and stretched out. Melanthios can see how ruined she still is. Her worldshell body is much sturdier than his, imagined and created for power and durability, but the rigidity required for this means its self-repair abilities are slower than his. The worst of the damage from her battle with Ifrit is mostly gone, but she still resembles a cracked china doll. He finds it distasteful. "I thought you'd be in there, sampling the barb, so to speak."

She sneers. "There's no-one in there I'd waste my time on."

"Is that a comment on my own activities?"

Tisiphone doesn't bother with things like tact or subtlety. She stares at him directly as she answers: "Yes."

He knows that in her eyes he's weak, no match for her physically. You're stupid, sister. "Just because I'd rather rule than destroy."

"Two down, brother, and we have a way in now. We should be charging into their rotten city and putting the dragon's head on a pike."

"All two of us?"

"Has your courage been lost somewhere in that disgusting shell you wear?"

"No more than your common sense," he shoots back.

And there is the heart of their disagreement. Melanthios knows more than his impulsive and angry sibling how thin their chance is, how much energy and time, oh so much time, has been put into planning this one last strike. They must walk a knives'-edge to make their people's final vengeance work. But Tisiphone had always run where walking would do.

"And your little plan with the girl has done nothing." Melanthios doesn't reply and she jumps on his reticence, sensing weakness. "Your little stroke of genius has come to nothing. Easier to have just killed her and be done with it, instead of the brat wandering around." She spits and a spot of blood arcs onto the floor.

He's been thinking the same thing, but his pride would never let him say that to her. "Patience was always a virtue you lacked." He spots one of the Galbadian soldiery walking towards them. "Yes?"

The man salutes nervously, trying not to glance at the shattered woman in red. "Pacification complete, sir."

Melanthios gives the man the full benefit of his smile. "Good work. Take us home." The man jogs away, gesturing into his radio.

Tisiphone shakes her head in disgust. "Just worthless drones."

And that's why you're stupid.

He's thinking ahead to the glorious day when all their plans are complete, their final revenge enacted and his people once again ruling from the throne of the world. But being around the humans has helped him learn his own lessons, and he has his own ideas about who will be sitting in the central chair.

No monarch ever shared a throne, dear sister.