CODENAME: LIGHTNING

We've been wandering again. I'm sick of wandering, but there isn't exactly anything else to do. We went through the door, and entered into The Crystal World, but it looks well . . . very strange. It looks like the broken remnants of an actual world, except that everything is coated in what is either crystal or glass. It's snowing here. That or this white powder is something entirely different. Whatever the case, this place seems utterly lifeless. It's bleak, and unwelcoming.

There are cities, and there are wastelands. There are palaces, and there are hovels. There are mountains and deserts. There are monumental piles of wreckage here and there, but there seems to be nothing alive. No grass, no trees. No animals. No people. It's just one frozen moment. It can't be a memory, since we're beyond Memoria, so what is this place?

"I'm bored," Benjamin whines for the eight hundredth time.

"So go die somewhere," Cuore snarls, "that'll be entertaining at least."

"Why don't you LOVE me?" Benjamin shouted abruptly.

"What?"

"I said go fuck yourself."
And again they start the fighting. I'm not sure how much longer I can stand the two of them constantly bickering. Gilgamesh has been oddly quiet since Memoria, and Arazlam . . . I'm not sure what to make of his behavior since we arrived here. One moment he's ecstatic about some strange new piece of trash he's dug out of the frozen rubble, the next he's asking me how I am. I'm colder than The Void, and I had to wash Garland's blood off with the snow here, how do you THINK I am?

In the distance, just barely off the horizon, I notice something large. As we approach, I'm almost certain its some kind of spire. I feel like I've seen it before, but I just can't recall . . . The others take note as well, and, as I had suspected, it is indeed a tower. The tower juts from a castle, the keep of which is behind a crumbling and forgotten wall. From the holes in the wall I can see that some manner of city once stood about the castle.

Opposite the castle and town is a pile of rocks that are either a jetty, or what once was a port. Beyond that there's nothing but a desert of glass until you arrive at some mountains, far, far beyond the castle town. The area seems surrounded by water, a river running behind the castle, and an ocean before it. I'd say we're many hours march from there, still, if not a full day.

We're atop a rocky mini-mountain of sorts, which enables this clear view of the land. It's all so lifeless. It's not exactly what I'd expected of a realm of legend housing the Crystals of Heaven. I wonder what happened here?

We descend the cliffs and make our way onto the barren plains. The glass sands crunch beneath our feet as we walk. The winds howl in fury, and the frigid snows whip at our faces. It's strange. It's snowing in this place, but for whatever reason, there's no snow on these plains. In fact, I haven't seen any since we went up the cliffs.

I feel annoyed. Not in the least because we're completely lost. No, it's more the fact that we've gone the most round about ways to get here, and now it seems utterly worthless. We went to Bahamut to find out what was going on, and He mentioned this place, but now, well, I can't say I really SEE the point behind our having gone to visit Him now. We followed Gilgamesh to The Prison at Sanity's Edge, and that proved almost more harmful than helpful. We went to find Ramza so we could have him off Raem for us, and he wound up dying because we were there.

It's so frustrating! Everywhere we go, destruction follows in our wake! Aren't we supposed to be fixing the problem, not causing it? Why are we all so damn cocky, anyway? We've barely survived our battles thus far, and as we go further, I can't help but feel like we're hopelessly outnumbered and outclassed. We have to find SOMETHING about Omega here, or all our plans will come crashing down around us here. Without this, we'll never have the power to challenge Cid Lufaine.

"So long as you cling to the crutch of power, you will never save yourselves." Says someone nearby.

We all turn our eyes at once to see a purple cat lounging in the sand behind us. A cat. Just laying there, like it's no big deal. Like it isn't freezing here, and like this isn't the weirdest place in the whole of Eternity. What's more is that it spoke. Whatever, as long as it breaks the monotony.

"Say again?"

"You can't cling to power; as long as you do, you will never save anyone." The cat rolls his eyes, as though it were the easiest thing in the world to understand.

"And you are . . . ?"

"Me? You don't know?"

"Dammit, why do you weirdos always have to speak in cryptic foreshadowing?" Gilgamesh spits, "Seriously, you think we DON'T know that some purple talking cat is more than just some red herring sitting around to distract us from what's going on?"

"In other words, spit it out: Who are you?"

"Me? Isn't it obvious who I am?" Says the cat, smiling an almost human smile as it's body disappears, leaving behind only the head. The head begins to fade as it says, "I'm NOT you."

"That's not an answer!" I say as the mouth vanishes before my eyes.

The cat appears curled up on top of Benjamin's head. Its smile seems even stranger now. As Benjamin struggles to remove the feline from his head, it says, "Ah, so it is a name you ask, is it?"

"Yes, of course-"

The cat's in between Cuore's breasts suddenly, having rent a hole in her shirt. He just popped from Benjamin's head there, using that little vanishing act he had before. "Well what's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell this sweet," he pauses, then adds, "or be this soft, as the case might be."

Cuore roars in anger about to blast the cat, when suddenly it pops out of Arazlam's beard. "But as you folk rely on power, so do, do you seem caught up in assigning things names, and communicating via language. So very predictable. Eternity you were given, and this is the most creative you can get?"

Arazlam reaches for his beard, only to have the cat appear on my shoulder. "You may call me Alfador. Yes, that name seems adequate. I am a traveler, a wanderer of sorts. An observer. At the moment I am watching a very interesting game unfold. But I have such a bad case of curiosity, you know."

The cat appears in Gilgamesh's hands, and this time Gilgamesh clamps it down with each hand. "Curiosity killed the cat, you know," he says.

"Too true," Alfador responds, evaporating from his hands and returning to his original position. "But you people rely too much upon what you see as well. Which is why I am here."

"Why ARE you here?" Benjamin asks.

"Like I said, I'm watching a game, but you're moving along SO SLOWLY."

"Yeah?" Gilgamesh asks defensively, "Well maybe we just like grinding our levels so we're ready for the next boss and doing sidequests to make our lives easier."
"I never did enjoy that," Alfador responds, "I'm much more a fan of crackpot theories. I'm story oriented, and you're delaying the tale I've been reading for far too long. I've come to hurry you onward."

"Wait, but doesn't that break your role as an observer? Aren't you supposed to be impartial?"

"I'm not impartial," Alfador responded, looking at Arazlam as though he were an absolute moron, "I'm BORED. You'll find more and more beings are that way as you go. Ooh, I really must know how this story ends! It's all so very exciting."

"Well I'm glad you're enjoying it," Cuore groans, "because I'm really finding this giant game between phantom players rather droll."

"Who said it's still phantom?" Benjamin asks, "seems to me we know who's been running the whole show for a while, now, right? I mean, it's obvious the major players are Shinryuu and Cid Lufaine."

"No," Arazlam says, "You're forgetting what Bahamut says. There's also Cosmos, Chaos, and Omega."

"Bahamut?" Alfador chimes, barely concealing his mirth, "He gave a good hint, but wasn't that lie He told even better?"

"What lie?" I say, more than a little irritated.

"You didn't catch it?"

"No-"

"Well then, NO SPOILERS! Sorry, can't tell you. Ruining a story as old as this? I could get moderated for that!"

"What the-"

"Great," Arazlam complains, "somebody else making nonsensical remarks. You might as well throw him in the bin with Benjamin and Gilgamesh."

"Oh, now, don't be cross just because I've been paying attention and you've been busy with other things. Don't worry, I said no spoilers, so I won't be saying anything about you," Alfador says to him, as his face goes white. "Now, that settled, let's be making some head way, shall we?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that while I'm not going to spoil the story, there are a few things you can know that won't harm anybody, and I'll share those. By the time I'm finished, we'll have arrived at Cornelia."

"Where?"

"Cornelia. The city up ahead. That's where you'll find Shinryuu."

"Wait, you know-"

"Yes, and for the record, He DOES know about Omega."

"Well great, then-"

"Please, let me do my exposition so we can be on our way."

"Well, okay," we say, each of us a little confused by this creature.

"Right, well, follow me," We do. "This is The Crystal World. As you see it now it is both eternal and temporal. In other words, this is how it looks in eternity and in time." The cat gestures around, "As you can see, everything is dead. All that remains are ruins, and shattered fragments of Crystals. The Great Crystal once was placed here, but after Kuja and Necron managed to make their ways in, Cid Lufaine removed it from here. When He came for it, He brought Shinryuu with Him.

"Shinryuu was of course here to help Cid Lufaine with the extraction of so precious an artifact. After all, The Crystal World had been unstable since Cosmos and Chaos had first warred here. Shinryuu focused on stabilizing the realm, and Cid removed The Great Crystal. Their respective traps for one another then sprang.

"Shinryuu had planned to destroy Cid by blowing up The Crystal in His hands. Cid had planned to trap Shinryuu within. As it happens, Cid won. The Crystal proved more solid than Shinryuu had believed, and Cid managed to trap Shinryuu within.

"So Shinryuu took up permanent residence here, in this broken world, forever trapped in the very abomination He Himself created. Oh, yes, this place is of His design. Cid Lufaine had sought madly for Garland ever since the conclusion to the war with Onrac. He searched frantically throughout the cosmos for His only son, but to no avail. That is, until Shinryuu approached Him with a deal.

"Sacrifice your body, and I will give you one mightier than all of Heaven's. That was the first part of the deal. Cid accepted, giving His body to Shinryuu. The Divine Dragon then lead Him back here, and showed Him The Eternal Paradox that Garland had caused by becoming Chaos, and that Chaos had caused by entering into this world's Eternal plane to do battle with Cosmos.

"The Eternal Paradox, known also as the 2000 Year Cycle, would, if allowed, spread to all of Heaven, and destroy all Eternity. So Shinryuu proposed the second clause of their contract: to keep these two Gods in check, they would have to sacrifice The Crystal World. Not simply the Crystals which were being destroyed as Chaos and Cosmos warred, but also the lives and souls of all who had lived there upon, who currently lived there upon, or who WOULD live there upon.

"Again, seeing no other way, Cid Lufaine consented to the destruction of everyone He had ever known and loved in a desperate bid to get back His son. But Shinryuu had deceived Him. He had claimed that the only way to save Heaven was to sacrifice The Crystal World. This was a lie. Cosmos and Chaos could have been stopped, could have been reconciled, these Gods whose origin is found in the sins of the Lufenians. Shinryuu persuaded Chaos to use more force than was necessary, and so this world, this Joia, it was broken.

"The place you see? In Time it ended in a nuclear holocaust. In Eternity, the ending was much the same."

"But Bahamut said that-"

"As I said, a neat lie, wasn't it? As it happened, the act should have caused both Chaos and Garland to kill themselves. Things turned out to be much more . . . entertaining for Shinryuu. Garland survived, by means Shinryuu neither understood nor cared to consider. What He DID know, was that it was to His advantage. Herein lay Shinryuu's third deal with Cid Lufaine:

"Garland's life would be preserved, and Cid Lufaine elevated to the status of King of The Gods on the sole condition that Chaos and Cosmos, and therefore Garland and Sarah, be forced to fight each other for all eternity.

"Cid accepted, and thus the Cycles of War were born. Elaborate, isn't it? Haven't you noticed anything yet? Why are men named Cids ill-fated to have some strange, and often tragic, influence on their worlds? Cid Pollendina learned the secret of flight, and what did it do him? It was given to his nation, not for wonder, but for war. Cid Marquez injected Kefka with Esper cells, driving him mad to the point of ending the world. Cid Bunansa struck a deal that nearly ensured the victory of the Occuria over Ivalice forever."

"What about Cid Previa?" I ask.

"He is a . . . variable. No player in this game ever believed he would come this far." The cat stopped a moment, then shrugged, "There's more. You've heard of Sephiroth. Isn't it oddly familiar? A man and a woman have a child by scientific means, in the attempt to create the Ultimate Weapon. All these things were of Chaos's design, but who do you suppose put these ideas there?"

"Shinryuu?"

"Exactly. Shinryuu had been controlling Heaven by weakening Cid Lufaine until Kuja tore a hole open to The Crystal World and tried to destroy The Great Crystal. That's when the two tried to do one another in. Shinryuu had, you see, grown tired of Cid Lufaine. After all, the G.A.R.L.A.N.D. system had wound up triggering the whole thing, and Shinryuu suspected Cid Lufaine had at last begun to make His bid for freedom."

"How do you know all this?"

"Isn't it obvious? I have been watching the entire game."

"Why?"

"The same reason you all are listening with bated breath: It's very interesting."

"So, hold on: why DID Bahamut lie to us?"

"Why, I thought that was clear: He wanted to protect someone."

"Who?"

"Ask differently."

"How did Cid Lufaine make His bid for freedom?" Benjamin blurts.

"You ARE getting smarter, then! The answers are one and the same: The Light Warrior Project."

"What?"

"Chaos and Cosmos fight their wars through their chosen champions. These champions are often groomed from the ground up, though for the Dissidiae the process is . . . occasionally done by others. Since Cid Lufaine's power, via Shinryuu, transcends that of Cosmos and Chaos, He managed to slip something between them at the same time that Shinryuu tipped Garland over the edge."

"And that is . . . ?"

"You truly are slow people! The Light Warriors, of course. Cid Lufaine was the chief scientist in the Sky Warrior Project in Lufenia. He utilized the very same theories by which He had made Garland to create something far, far greater: The Light Warrior. But something was at play that neither Cid Lufaine nor Chaos could have EVER foreseen. Something they no longer understand."

"THE SUSPENSE IS KILLING ME!" Benjamin cries.

"Love. None of them would ever imagine that Cosmos, the being intended to manipulate Garland, the embodiment of Harmony, Goddess of Order, who had been bound to Sarah, the Princess of Cornelia, had fallen in love with Garland. And Garland, the ultimate weapon, the avatar of Chaos, the child of Discord, the God of Disorder, had fallen hopelessly in love with Cosmos. Something no one could understand, how love could spring on the battlefield.

"And for love, Cosmos Herself manipulated the Light Warrior and erased his companions, all to save Garland. When Garland again died suddenly, this time because of things on an Eternal scale, She guarded the G.A.R.L.A.N.D. system and brought it first to Terra, until Kuja struck him down. So Cosmos took what remained of Garland and placed Him in Memoria, where She believed Him safe, half living, half dead.

"But on their way to The Crystal World, Shinryuu and Cid found Garland, and this was likely what tipped them to their conflict. Cid Lufaine had been making monsters for ages in hopes of destroying Shinryuu and freeing Himself, though I cannot know why; after all, Shinryuu's life is- was- linked to Garland's. So He placed His greatest creation, The Memory Eater, in Memoria, in part to guard Garland, in part to guard Shinryuu, but also for a reason far more sinister.

"This is something I have longed to understand about you people. When a man and a woman fall in love, the forsake everyone around them for each other. Not forsake, but lower the others and elevate the beloved. Your love is so . . . binding. As long as Garland loved Sarah, and Cosmos loved Chaos, Garland would never turn back to his father. He would always be bound to that ancient and reviled war.

"So Raem and Namine, The Memory Eater, were placed to devour Garland's memories of Sarah. Ultimately though, Raem, the Beast, overpowered Namine, the Beauty, and wound up devouring all of Garland's memories. This is . . . very recent. It is why Chaos has been using Vincent, even though He does not fully understand.

We remain silent a moment, none of us sure what to make of this all. It is . . . confusing to say the least. Again I find it hard to keep track of who has been doing what, and I only feel my anger rising toward both Shinryuu and Cid. At last, when I can contain myself no longer, I ask:

"What's really going on? All we ever hear are the things people are doing. What's the motive behind all of this! Look how many souls have been obliterated beyond all remembrance, and not once has a motive been given!"

"Those are the spoilers," Alfador answers. "If I told you, then the drama and tension wouldn't be the same. It could have quite the effect on your decisions, too."

"Isn't this information already having an effect on our decisions?" Arazlam asks.

"To an extent. Bahamut cheated when He lied to you. He wanted to protect The Light Warrior. If you had known this, your actions would have been different. All I have done is tell you a lie and rectify one of my own."

"You LIED to us?"

"A small one. It has little meaning to what I've said."

"What was a lie?"

"Again, NO spoilers. Let me ask a question of my own: At the center of all this, what name has come to your mind?"

"Simple," Gilgamesh says.

I answer for us all, "Cosmos."