Why am I still here? Why have I not been cast into the fire? I failed to find redemption and surely the gods have now forsaken me. But why can I still reason? Should not my thoughts be like ashes in the wind? Should they not have been blown to the edges of reality itself?

…

"Geeze, You weren't kidding about it being golden." Lani commented as she gazed at the Golden chocobo from the top of a nearby hill. The bird in question paid them no mind as it repeatedly plunged its beak below the grassy soil in what she guessed was an attempt at an afternoon snack.

"Yea, that's the one." Amarant sighed heavily, shielding his eyes from the sun with his arm. They couldn't be more than half of a mile away, but with the injuries that had been dealt him, it seemed to be at least three times that distance.

"You wanna stop for a rest?" She offered hopefully, exhaustion not lost on her in the least.

"No." He huffed without hesitation. "If we fall asleep before we make it to that damned forest, don't make any plans of waking up."

She would have argued the implausibility of his statement considering that there was nothing around them, nor were they being followed, but there was an eerie quietness that had become more than a little unsettling. How had things gone to shit so quickly? She wasn't a fool by any means; she knew wars happened for reasons that often didn't even matter and that there would always be some that hungered for food or thirsted for revenge based on some trivial debt. Hell, that was why she had become a mercenary in the first place. It was easy money. Besides, did it even matter if a random asshole in a suit suddenly met his untimely end? She didn't think so, but this was different than any of that.

Kingdoms and cities didn't just become ghost towns overnight, there was always a struggle that dragged on until things evened themselves out. What kind of monster could kill everyone without even leaving bodies behind? She shuddered at the thought and tried to instead focus on the ground ahead of her as they continued toward the forest.

"Do you think those friends of yours are even still alive?" She asked after a few minutes.

He didn't answer at first and she began to wonder if that meant they were on their own. "I don't know if everyone is still alive, but there's no way in hell that damned monkey let himself get killed already. Wherever he is, you bet your gil Garnet's with him."

"What about the guy you talked to? Is he-"

"We can talk when we get there." He nodded toward the forest that was now almost within throwing distance. She pressed her lips together into a thin slit and walked forward a little faster in determination.

…

Unlike everything else, the forest was peaceful without the disquieting feeling that had been hanging in the air. Amarant had never really cared about wildlife or nature for that matter, but hearing the birds chirp overhead and the sounds of the leaves rustling in the wind was calming. It almost made it possible to imagine that all the bad things that had happened recently were all in his head. Sadly, he knew that was not the case. It was probably only a matter of time before this place was destroyed like everything else.

He shook his head to clear the unwelcome images and dipped his cupped hands into the cool clear water. Looking into the water he held for a moment, he saw his bruised and battered face in its reflection and decided he had made it out well. He gulped the water down and its almost heavenly refreshing coldness was exactly what he had needed.

"Do you think they will come looking for us here?" Lani asked tentatively.

"Probably." He replied, not looking up from the water.

"Then why did we come here?" She asked, growing impatient. "What is going on?"

He splashed more water onto his face for a moment before turning toward her. "As much as I don't like it, you're right; I do have to trust you."

Lani nodded incredulously. She had not thought he would ever give her the chance.

Amarant's face grew even more serious as he began. "Those people, whoever they are, aren't human. They may have been once, but not anymore." Lani looked as though she might interrupt him, but she remained silent. "I don't know much about them, but I do know what they're after."

"What's that?" She could not help but ask.

"They're after the twelve Zodiac stones. I don't know exactly what they are, but I know each one can grant a person's wishes and if you were to have all of them, there's no limit to what you could do. You could wipe everything off the face of Gaia or become some kind of god."

She stared at him in disbelief. "So, you're telling me these stones can grant us any wish we want? No wonder they're after them! If we had one, we could wish for a king's ransom in gold and then some! It wouldn't matter who tried coming after us, we'd be untouchable!"

Amarant shook his head dismissively. "What good would gold do us if there wont be anything left to buy? As for making us untouchable, I doubt one of them would be able to do much good when they already have the other twelve."

Her hopeful expression fell, only to be replaced confusion. "What do you mean the other twelve? Aren't there only twelve of them? Unless you mean…"

He could not help but smirk as he saw realization dawn on her face. "There's thirteen of them, and we have the last one. I buried it in the Air Garden and the only way to reach it is with that damn chocobo, though I'm not sure we should count on that. We probably need to go get it before we do anything else."

This time, it was Lani that smirked. "So, it's up to us to make sure they don't get last one, huh? Save the world and all that?"

"Something like that." He grunted.

She slapped him on the back, almost making him yelp in pain. "Well, it can wait til tomorrow. We both need the rest. Unless you're healed already?"

For once, he could not have agreed more. No sooner had he gently sat against a nearby tree, that his eyelids began to close of their own accord.

….

Lindblum

"We can't hold the outer walls much longer sir! We must fall back!" A panicked soldier yelled as another boulder slammed into it nearby, causing three archers to plummet over the side and into the army below.

"No!" Roared Steiner as he grabbed onto a siege ladder and shoved it off the wall, sending its occupants hopefully to their doom. "These walls are still strong!" He bellowed. "And so are we!" He grabbed the nearest archer and pointed roughly at the closest Siege tower. "Aim for that tower! Bring it down! We must hold! We must-" His sentence was cut short as he drove his sword into the rotten flesh of an enemy soldier that had come from his left. He yanked out his blade out of its chest and slashed its neck, sending its head over the edge.

The main problem with the enemy as he saw it, wasn't that there were even more of them then first assumed, and there probably closer to ten thousand than a thousand, it was that had the horrid tendency to keep getting back up unless you managed to remove their heads. Even then, he was not quite sure all of them stayed down. He could have sworn he saw a headless soldier down below.

He turned toward the direction the undead soldier had come from and felt renewed admiration for Freya as he watched her fighting back a wave of the enemies that had made it onto the wall. Even against this seemingly unsurmountable foe, she had not waivered nor had she let any fear cross her features. While it was true that the walls were yet holding, he was not nearly as sure of their integrity as he had tried to convince the troops. With each blow of the enemy siege weapons that had clearly risen from the ground, he could fell the stones below him shake ominously. How many more till it simply fell with them on top of it? No. He could not afford to let fear rise from the pit of his stomach and take over; if Freya could be brave in the face of death so could he! Had they not faced worse already?

In the distance, he could see the airships that remained returning for another pass, blasting as many of them as they could. With a grimace, he realized there were only five of them now, two of which were on fire. He had been a fool to think the enemy would be unable to retaliate against the airships without airships of their own. Four of them had already been brought down by burning arrows. It was only a matter of time before the others were taken down as well… Dammit! We were not prepared; even just a few more weeks could have made all the difference!

He was jerked from his thoughts as sounds of loud clanging erupted behind him, he spun around quickly and saw that a group of undead soldiers had made it over in his absence. Damn his foolishness! Without further hesitation, he charged them with a powerful swing, slicing the head of the nearest undead. The next was too close to maneuver his sword in time, so he grabbed it by its grimy chest plate and shoved it over the side of the wall. Blocking the blow of a third with his metal gauntlet, he swung again, but before his blade was able to connect with its target, there was an explosion that sent everything into slow motion.

His thoughts had been on cleaving the head of that soldier, but now he felt almost detached as he was blown backward by the blast. He could see and feel blood splattering onto his face, his vision turning red but could not tell if it was his or not. Either way, it seemed to be a trivial thing to ponder as he watched the edge of the wall rising above him. Pieces of the top of the wall where he had been standing looked to be hanging in the air. His vision was becoming a blur and he knew it would not be long before he hit the ground, and it would surely be a fall he would not be getting up from. Was Freya still holding? Or was she too- With a sickening crack and white-hot pain, everything faded to black…

….

He felt… Soreness. It was as if every bone in his body groaned as he shifted slightly before trying to open his eyes. His head swam and his vision stung as he took in the stone ceiling above him. What had happened? Where was he? He tried his best to remember, but for now it was all a blur. Judging by how painful it had been to merely shift himself, he dared not try to sit up or turn his head too quickly. This place seemed familiar somehow. Had he been here before? Now that he thought about it, who exactly was he? Pressing the thought, he focused on trying to remember. Adelbert… Yes, that was his name. it was his job to… the queen!

He tried to bolt upright, but instead a bolt of intense pain shot through his body and it took all of his willpower not to scream. "I wouldn't so that if I were you." An elderly voice commented with little remorse. Straining his neck, he saw an elderly man scribbling on a piece of parchment. There was a lot of questions that he wanted to ask, but the most pressing one could not be contained. "Why can't I move!? What have you done to me!?"

The old man chuckled amusedly. "Done to you? Why I have done nothing to you at all."

"Then why-" Steiner began, attempting to turn more fully toward him, but was cut off as the man continued as though he had said nothing.

"It was Eiko that healed you. Id reckon that most of the bones in your body were broken. What with a fall like that and the debris that fell on top of you, I'd say you were very lucky. Very lucky indeed.

Steiner looked down at his chest but all he could see was bandages with a few dark red stains here and there. "I fell?" he asked, more to himself than the old man, flashes of what had happened slowly returning to him.

"Well I'm not quite sure, I-" The old man started.

"Steiner! You're awake!" Freya exclaimed from the doorway, hurrying inside.

"Doesn't anyone ever knock?" grumbled the old man and he went back to scribbling on his parchment.

"Freya?" Steiner asked, his memory still returning. "What happened?"

"One of the siege towers managed to fire another shot before the airships were able to destroy it... it hit not far from where you were standing. Most of the wall is still intact, but walkway you were standing on was blasted apart. We thought you had died with the archers near you, but I think all that rusty armor Zidane always made fun of might have actually saved your life." She finished with a humorless chuckle patting his shoulder gently.

"With a jolt, it all came back to him. "What about the enemy?"

Freya shook her head in an almost shocked disbelief. "Moments after you fell, they just stopped. Then, for no apparent reason they sank into the ground and disappeared." Noticing his disbelieving expression, she added, "I wouldn't have believed it either if I hadn't seen it for myself; they're just gone."