Chapter 5


"No..." Vatica moaned, "He's not coming back..."
"I knew this plan was futile," Innocence said, "why do you keep lying to yourself?"
"IT'S OVER! ALEXANDER WILL HAVE OUR HEAD! IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!" Rage shrieked.
"Are you addressing me?" Malice hissed, "the fault lies not with me. We will have our Kuja back...and Alexander will pay for leaving us behind on Gaia."
"I will wait one more day..." Vatica said, "then I will have to flee. Alexander has finally decided to acknowledge me...he will punish me if I do not avoid him."
"You're going to give up on our chance at Heaven?!" Malice exploded, "How could you? Idiot! We will stay here until Kuja returns! Then our plan will take flight!"
"There is no 'we'!" Vatica shouted, "there is only 'me'! Leave me alone! Go away! Why must I be cursed with you?" He voice echoed off the throne room walls.
"You call me a curse?" Malice growled, "you are the disease that infects this body! I am perfect, it is the rest of you that are useless!" She snapped her wings open, "if Kuja chooses not to return then so be it! I can take Heaven alone!"


Sing me to sleep
Sweet songs of death
Lulling me away
Dreaming of never
Torn fragments of memories
Drift away
Sing to me softly
Sad songs of living
Struggle for liberty
Never becoming
Walking into now
Forgetting what was
Sing for me beautifully
Voices of the dying
Cries of the dead
Unfulfilled longing
Sleeping so soundly
Remembering where the paths went
Sing songs of tyranny
Words of the wise
Whispers in silence
Softly crying
Sing for me
While I die


The dark slowly gave way to light. A distorted image of a man in black armor as seen through water. The hum of machinery warbled by the fluid. Voices that just barely made sense:
"...Excellent specime....but still imp...fect.........Kuja...."
To the right was another tube filled with liquid, the man in black looked into it, "....New angel of death.......perfe.....Zidane....."

The picture faded back into black. Light came again, this time there was a battle. Four people attacking, their motions blurred together. A figure in white and red struck by a dagger.
"I won't die alone! You're all coming with me!" A brilliant blast of light, then:

"...I finally learned what it means to live...I guess I was too late..." Again the scenes blacked out. There was no light for a while. Only silence and darkness. A flash of red cut the endless night of death. Fire leapt up and swallowed the entire field of vision. The intense heat and horrible pain of the flames blended with fear and hate. The dark came again, soon to be followed by light, but for how long? Intermission was over. The audience was watching, the stage was set, and the cast was ready to perform.


"I'm alive...a second chance...my hat is off to you Vatica. Without you I would never have been granted this great fortune." Kuja opened his eyes. "I was born, I was killed...only to be born again...is this what life is?" He was in a room of Lindblum Grand Castle. It was plain, windowless, and practically empty. Only a bed and bureau and a bookshelf, boring white washed walls and ceiling. He got up, when he did his spine cracked, "To be made of flesh and blood again..." Kuja ran his hand through his hair to untangle it, "is it a privilege or a burden?" He swung his legs around to the side of the bed and got up. It was satisfying to hear the clicking of his boots on the marble floor. He went to the door but found it locked. He frowned, "how unoriginal..."
The bookshelf had a few books on it, Kuja examined them, "...World Atlas.... Encyclopedia of Modern Technology...bah...hmmm, 'The Complete Works of Lord Avon'" Kuja took the book from its place and opened the worn yellow pages. In the table of contents, he found 'I want to be Your Canary.' He turned to the final scene and read one of the lines, "'Oh love is the sweetest joy and the wildest woe'...if only they knew..."


"He's not coming back." Vatica wept in the loneliness of the palace, "I should go back and beg Alexander's forgiveness..."
"Never," Malice said sharply, "it was the fool that left us alone on Gaia to go mad! He never once tried to help us; he ignored our pain and fear. It is up to us to dethrone that tyrant and start anew!"
"Stop saying 'us'! I am myself! Leave me!" Vatica wailed, "the plan has been destroyed! I cannot win!"
"WE WILL DIE! DIE AND BE LOST FOREVER!" Rage mourned.
"It's not over." Malice insisted.
"Yes," Innocence said knowingly, "it is."


"Sire, Kuja has awakened."

Regent Cid rose from his seat, "good. I must speak with him." He was joined by five guards and headed to Kuja's room. The Regent was nervous. He didn't know exactly what to say to someone who had tried to destroy his country, but had then saved his niece's comrades from certain death. Zidane had assured everyone that Kuja had changed, but still, Cid was harboring many fears.
A guard opened Kuja's door. He was sitting by the bookshelf on a crate he had located, legs crossed, book held out in front of him with one hand, reading quietly. Cid took a deep breath; he cleared his throat, " ahem." Kuja turned slowly. He put his book down and stood. Cid tried to sound casual, "well, long time no see..."

"So it would seem Regent." Kuja responded.

Cid raised an eyebrow. Kuja's gaze made him shiver; he feigned a cough to break eye contact. "Um...I hope my accommodations have been acceptable?"

"Certainly." Kuja nodded, "but, I'm sure you didn't come here for small talk. I mean no disrespect, but I suggest you get to the point."

"Oh, of course." Cid flushed, "uh...I came here to discuss some...business. As you have already figured out, Queen Garnet brought you here from Alexandria. As active government officials who have suffered huge casualties under your attacks, we thought that-

To the Regent's surprise, Kuja came forward until only a few feet of space was between them. The guards tensed, but Kuja dropped to one knee and held his head low, "I do not deny the crimes against the peoples of Alexandria, Lindblum, Burmecia, and Cleyra. I am willing to accept any and all punishment necessary in seeing that justice is served."

Cid was flabbergasted, he stumbled over his tongue, "I-I-I...uh...g-good..." He straightened his shoulders, "I shall...consult with Queen Garnet, and we will see what she says. Until then you are restricted to this room."


"Well it's just like Dr. Tot said: there was a loophole. Kuja's body may have been under Vatica's influence, but once it was rejoined with the soul, the soul took over." Garnet explained to Hilda. "So now he is free of her."

"You were very fortunate." Hilda said.

Cid returned to the castle conference room. Zidane kicked the heel of his boot against the wall, "well?"

"We went through what I wanted to say. He was very agreeable. Humble, actually..." Cid said.

"Humility from Kuja. There's something you don't see very often." Zidane mumbled.

"He said that he would accept any punishment that we saw fit for him," Cid sat down, "now what that punishment should be, I am not sure."

"What about Vatica?" Garnet asked, "she's still out there."

"I agree," Steiner said, "we should concentrate on finding that woman! We have Kuja locked up here in Lindblum, but Vatica is still free."

"But where do we start looking?"


"They say the dead speak not...but is the dead that have the most to say," Kuja said to himself, "I finally can converse with others again...yet they lock me up in a cell. The reason the dead to not talk, is because no one will listen."


"The Desert Palace," Dr. Tot said when he arrived in the castle conference room. "Our Vatica has an obsessive disorder. There is actually more information on her than I thought. It seems that her current obsession is Kuja. There fore it would make sense that she would be at the Desert Palace, which was his former residence."

"It's as simple as that, huh?" Zidane said.

"Yes."

"So what do we do?" No one had an answer to that.

"We know the location of the Palace," Steiner pointed out, "we should send a fleet and blast her out!"

"No," Garnet shook her head; "Vatica is too strong. She would only get mad and destroy the attack force, which would mean more casualties."

"Well, we can't just sit around here and yap," Zidane commented, "we gotta do something."

"I believe that we will need a certain amount of force," Steiner said, "that is the only way to get to her!"

"There has to be a different way."

"She certainly isn't going to open her doors and invite us in!" Steiner bellowed.

Zidane glared. He looked at the floor, ".....That's just what she's going to do."

"What?"

"She's going to open up and take us right in."


O, thou weed,
Who art so lovely fair and smell'st so sweet
That the sense aches at thee, would thou hadst ne'er been
Born!
- Shakespeare's Othello, Act IV. Scene II