FF8: The Saviours - Conclusion
by Astarte
Chimera opened her eyes, feeling disoriented and strange. She was looking up at the sky. Clouds were drifting past, soft and white, sailing through the azure sky like sailing ships navigating an endless ocean. For a few minutes, she watches as they seemed to race against each other, competing for some unimaginable prize. The sun, warm and inviting, shone down on her with generous benevolence. High up in the sky, a small white speck cruised the sky, a sea bird, master of the winds.
When she tried to sit up she was suddenly struck with intense pain. Looking at the source, she noticed that her shoulder looked strange. She had dislocated it. Ignoring the mystery of how it had occurred for the moment, she forced her arm back into place. Searing pain dwindled as her body began to heal the injury. It could not have been that long since she'd dislocated it, bruises still mottled her arm.
She sat up, feeling oddly heavy and clumsy, as though her body had become unfamiliar with the relentless pull of gravity. Salt air filled her nostrils, the smell of brine and the sea. Warm sand clung to her skin, working its way into her clothing in that mysterious way that sand had. She let a handful of sand flow through her fingertips. It was golden and fine, glittering in the sunlight. It did not smell like Galbadia.
She looked around. The earth around her was awash in rusts, ochres and siennas, standing in stark contrast with the bright blue sky. The soft white clouds cast smoky gray shadows over the landscape which was punctuated by emerald forests, stabbing upward towards the azure sky. In the distance was a lone strange tower, ancient and ravaged by time. It virtually shone with the presence of its owner; Odin's Tower. She was on the ruined Centra Continent.
At first she was confused, unsure how she had gotten here. She strained to remember but at first she was frustrated by her uncooperative memory, but then the events flashed into her mind and she remembered. It had begun with an argument. Everything always began with an argument. That was the way of things.
She had been in the court of Bahamut, face to face with gods. She had been enjoying the frustrated outrage of the human SeeDs, shocked that Bahamut had sided with her. Her pleasure had not lasted long.
Zell had looked at her with an expression she did not like: pity. He had tried to reason with her, he had to persuade her that there had to be another way. She had not been interested in listening. Her mind had been made up twenty years ago. There was nothing that he could say that would change her mind. He seemed to know that but tried anyway.
"Why does it have to be this way?" he had asked, almost pleading with her. "Do you have to act like a robot, doing everything those monsters expect you to?" His outburst had confirmed what she had long suspected, Doctor Echid had been alerted and had gone straight to SeeD.
"Do you deny the truth?" had been her response. "Your species is dangerous."
"Life's dangerous," Irvine had retorted with an exasperated edge to his voice. "That's an invalid argument and you know it. Or," he'd said with a sneering tone, "do you expect me to believe that T-Rexaurs and Malboros are harmless and cuddly?"
After that, it had quickly degenerated into a shouting match, both sides eventually resorted to simply yelling at one another. Looking back with more than a little chagrin, she realized that she had shown no more maturity than they had. The Guardian Forces had simply watched both sides behave like small misbehaving children.
The final blow had come from the human known as Iris. During one long pause, pregnant with anger, she had said the one thing that had enraged Chimera beyond her ability to control herself.
"Chimera, you are human, too." The softness of her tone and the thoughtful expression on her face had been like a slap in Chimera's face. Almost anything else she could have tolerated but not this.
"You and I both know how Dr. Echid created you," Iris had said in a relentless voice that drilled into Chimera's head like a jackhammer. "A genetically engineered human fused with a GF. The operative word is human, Chimera." Iris' face had been tender, inviting, as though she'd wanted nothing more than to make peace, forge a friendship.
It was too much for Chimera to bear. The final insult, one that made her finally strike out in mindless rage. For one split second, she did not care about the consequences.
Humans had the benefit of ignorance but she did not. She had come to Bahamut's court with inherent knowledge. She knew what she could get away with and what she could not. Attacking his guests was not one of them. She did anyway.
Even as her clawed hand had lashed out against the woman, she'd heard Bahamut's roar of outraged anger. She had not cared, not even about that, all that she had wanted to do was tear Iris limb from limb. She had wanted to rip her into tiny globs of quivering flesh, shred that hateful smile from her intolerable face. She had never known hatred so pure or black as what she had felt in those few seconds. It blinded her to any thing else. All that she could see were Iris' frightened eyes.
Much to her surprise, Siren abruptly appeared between her and her prey. Siren had been a terrifying sight, a goddess enraged. The air had been electric around her and power poured from her in waves. Mere inches away from Siren's throat, Chimera's arm was struck by a force that was powerful enough to wrench her arm from its socket. Had it been within Siren's power, she would have killed her on the spot. Only Bahamut's law had prevented it, the very law that Chimera had violated herself.
Reeling in pain from Siren's angry reprisal, Chimera had had the wind knocked out of her when she was tackled from the side. Stunned and in agonizing pain, she'd found herself looking up into Zell's angry face. His gloved fist was inches from her nose. For some strange reason, he reminded her of herself.
"I understand if you're ticked off at how you were treated," he had shouted into her face. "I can even understand that you're only doing what you were made to do!" She remembered how he slammed his fist into the ground beside her head. "No one messes with Iris! No one!"
"Now you know how I feel" was what she had wanted to say. It had been Bahamut, however, who'd had the final word.
"This shall not be tolerated."
With those words, she had been cast out. Thrown down to earth. She could only assume that the SeeD had also been returned.
So here she stood, looking at Odin's tower with a kind of longing. She felt torn between the paradise that she had left behind and the Galbadia that she so desperately craved.
*You cannot have both,* Bahamut said, startling her. That surprised her, she wouldn't have thought that he would talk to her after what had happened. *You are like a child, prone to fits and tantrums. I am angry with your behaviour but I am not unreasonable. You must make a choice however. Live among us or on the green earth but not both.*
Chimera's sigh was bitter. She would have dearly wanted to have Galbadia solely to herself while still enjoying the bliss of paradise but Bahamut was not going to permit it. For now she would console herself with Galbadia. That, she decided, was what humans owed her.
*It is your decision.*
Reassured that Bahamut would not withdraw his edict, she was suddenly struck with an idea, brilliant in its simplicity. She knew exactly how to prove to him, once and for all, that humans would not prove worthy.
She launched herself upward, high into the azure sky.
*** *** ***
Zell woke up, filled with an incredible, overwhelming lethargy. He lay there, not even opening his eyes to see where he was, every extremity feeling like numbed lead. He heard voices but simply didn't have the will to move. He didn't want to, he felt as though some vital part of him was not there, or not quite awake yet. He let himself drift, unaware of time, in that comfortable way-station between the waking and dreaming realms.
"He's still not responsive," someone said. It was almost a Herculean effort to even hear the words, he couldn't dredge up the energy to identify the gender. He distantly felt odd pricks and poking but was too content to care about what might be happening to him.
Bliss. It was a kind of all-encompassing bliss. Utter peace and contentment seeped into every pore of his being, draining away all other sensations. He felt cocooned by a wonderful, mindless absence of unhappiness. And yet he felt as though he'd forgotten something. It was too difficult to think so he didn't worry about it. He gave himself over to the empty bliss.
Serenely ignoring the outside world, he felt as though he was swimming in a deep dark sea. Then the missing part of himself arrived suddenly, hitting him with the force of a speeding train. Awareness seemed to come at him out of nowhere, slamming into him and shattering the numbing contentment. Suddenly he was completely and utterly awake and he remembered what had happened in Bahamut's court.
Zell tried to sit up, desperate to find his friends, only to hit his forehead on something hard and clear. As he lay there, rubbing his forehead and swearing, a man in a white medical uniform came and pressed something. The clear lid of Zell's medical pod slid back with a soft mechanical purr.
"Can you tell me your name?" asked the man in a cool professional voice as he began examining Zell.
Zell answered his question absently, looking around in total confusion. The place looked and smelled like a hospital but the extremely high level of technology could only belong to Esthar. He watched as men and women in medical uniforms rushed to respond to the piercing cries of other medical pods. Selphie was sitting up in another one, her hair disheveled, loudly demanding to know where Irvine was. Seeing Zell, she waved brightly at him, her demeanor even cheerier than ever before. Somewhat confused, he waved back. He wondered how they had gotten to Esthar.
Rinoa was hovering over another pod, trying to peek between two medical personnel who were giving Squall an examination. She was wearing a very short hospital gown and Zell had to tear his eyes away before he saw anything that would make Squall decide to kill him. Studiously looking elsewhere he wondered what malicious sadist had conceived the idea of hospital gowns.
In the midst of the manic ballet of the ICU, Laguna Loire came running in, panting. His face lit up with delight as he saw them. "You're alright," he beamed cheerfully. Trailing behind him were the ever-present Kiros and Ward. They also seemed rather pleased. A man in a pale blue uniform was looking at a bank of monitors, shaking his head in puzzlement. He briefly consulted with a woman wearing the same colours.
"They seem to have recovered completely, Mr. President but we don't know why," The man said, obviously a senior physician. "Of course," the doctor said, "we didn't know what was wrong in the first place."
Laguna still grinning broadly, pounded the doctor's back enthusiastically. "They're awake, that's all I care about." His beaming smile was infectious and Zell began to feel as energetic as Laguna.
"What happened?" asked Squall, brushing away the medical staff. His tone was, as always, coolly professional. Zell wondered if there was any time that Squall wasn't on duty.
Laguna scratched his head. "Before or after that blue woman appeared and you vanished?"
"After Shiva came for us," Squall said tonelessly. Zell could feel the annoyance from all the way over to his side of the room. Rinoa poked Squall in the ribs, giving him a fierce little "behave yourself" glare. Squall sighed and tried to look friendlier. Zell didn't think he'd succeeded all that well.
Laguna ignored the thinly veiled hostility and rocked on his heels, his hands jammed into the pockets of his pants. Looking up at the ceiling, he drawled, "Well, you guys vanished into thin air so we tried contacting the Ragnorok. We had no luck at all, nothing but static."
Laguna started pacing back and forth. "About one hour later, the Ragnorok appeared just outside of Esthar City. We were kind of surprised so we sent in a bunch of guys to check it out."
"We sent in a tactical team," Kiros said, smoothly interrupting his longtime friend, "From a distance, they reported that the ship seemed dead, no lights, no power. All communication attempts failed. As they approached, several soldiers reported an unusual absence of wild predators and everyone reported hearing singing."
"Once they finally got close to the ship," Laguna said, giving Kiros a friendly shove. "They saw a woman sitting in the doorway and singing her heart out. They said she was really pretty, blonde, and had wings and a harp. She sounded like that GF… ummm…". His eyebrows furrowed as he tried to remember.
"Siren," Zell piped in helpfully. She had seemed like the only one that had been on their side and not Chimera's. Zell guessed that she had kept the bigger predators away with her singing.
Laguna's face lit up once more. "Yes, her. Anyway," he said, shrugging, "She said something and then vanished. Our guys found you all inside, in a coma. You've been unconscious for two days." Laguna turned towards Kiros. "Exactly what was it she said?"
Kiros scanned through an electronic report. "The soul has further to travel than the body." Kiros looked up and smiled at Zell. "Good work, by the way, Odine's practically beside himself with glee. He seems to enjoy playing with those crystals your team retrieved."
"So," Laguna said, "now you tell me what happened."
He listened quietly as Squall related what had happened. Zell struggled to keep from blurting out helpful interruptions. He was finally beginning to master the art of self control. Laguna's eyes were wide as he listened. When it was finished, he could only whistle in amazement.
"Man," he said softly. "What an experience." He shook his head in disbelief, his smile a half-hearted one. "It doesn't sound very good but it explains quite a bit." Kiros and Ward's faces looked particularly disturbed. It made Zell wonder what had gone on while they were unconscious.
Iris walked up and took Zell's hand. "What about Chimera?" she asked in a very soft voice. Her near death at the hands of the enraged Chimera seemed to have shaken her somewhat so Zell gave her hand a reassuring squeeze, leaned over and kissed her forehead. She smiled up at him gratefully, leaning against him for support.
It made him feel a little better too. He'd never thought much about Iris dying, really losing her, up until then. It was a little shocking to realize that the people you loved were mortal after all. And it had been so very close. Chimera had been crazed. If it had not been for Siren's intervention, he would have been carrying Iris home for burial. It was a thought that he tried very hard to put out of his mind.
Laguna's wane smile vanished completely. His whole body seemed to sag. "I knew that you'd want to know," he said in a subdued voice. "Get dressed. I'll show you." He turned and walked out of the room, Kiros following close behind. Ward just shook his head and made a jerking motion with his thumb. They didn't need Kiros to translate. It meant 'Hurry up'.
They had never gotten dressed so fast in their lives, simply pulling on their clothing with no regard to the niceties of grooming. Quistis didn't even put her hair up, leaving it to fall down past her shoulders. Zell thought that she looked much less intimidating that way. Likely, he realized, why she wore it up instead. Oddly enough, Squall managed to look immaculate. Zell felt a twinge of envy, knowing he didn't look nearly so neat. Some people were just born like that.
As soon as they were dressed, a young officer with a nervous tick escorted them up to the Presidential Palace where Laguna and his omnipresent friends were waiting for them. Beckoning them to come closer, Laguna pointed to a large screen that was lowering itself from the ceiling. A flicker of static and white noise then the image cleared. Zell recognized the scenes immediately, it was the Galbadian council chambers. Under President Maraj, they had begun weekly transmissions of council proceedings. Zell had taken to watching them, it was rather entertaining to realize how immature most politicians were. Some of the best fights he'd seen had been during council proceedings.
"Watch this," Laguna said somberly. "I've skipped past the dull parts."
Zell was watching the screen carefully. At first he didn't notice anything unusual. They were apparently debating some kind of measure, the Opposition noisily trying to shout down a councilor that was trying to announce something. At the head of the room, sitting on a throne like chair, was President Maraj. Zell was rather surprised to see General Caraway seated off to one side, surrounded by attendant officers. President Maraj stood up, intent on saying something. Zell never got a chance to hear what he was about to say.
The middle of the floor seemed to waver and pulse with an odd green glow then a figure rose up through the flooring. It was a beautiful woman wearing black body armour. It was Chimera. She was floating several feet off the floor surrounded by writhing green flames. She floated effortlessly in the pillar of fire, laughing as security began to fire on her. Zell watched in horror as she casually motioned and they turned to ash, the life sucked out of them by tongues of green flame.
He reluctantly watched, morbid curiosity gluing his eyes to the screen. She was speaking, her voice loud and clear. Zell could hear the harsh edge of fanaticism in her voice. She spoke with the conviction of the righteous.
"Know this humans of Galbadia. I speak to you with the grace of Bahamut, Lord of all the Guardians. Your kind will cede Galbadia to me. The price of disobedience will be the extermination of all your kind from the face of this world. Obey, and your kind will be permitted to live so long as no human sets foot upon Galbadia ever again. You have seventy-two hours to make your decision."
She turned away looked as though she was about to leave but suddenly looked over her shoulder, impaling the frightened men with her piercing jade eyes. "Do not think that you know or understand what you are dealing with, humans. I am no longer what I once was."
She smiled her predatory smile. "I am a god."
Zell couldn't help but shudder, staring at the screen long after it had faded to static. He had seen the Guardians, the Firstborn, face to face, in all their resplendent glory. He had no doubt in his mind that they were gods. Now she was one of them.
Laguna pressed a button and the screen disappeared into the ceiling. "I'll be honest," he said with a rueful smile. "I wasn't afraid of her until I saw that the first time. I've played it over and over, nearly a dozen times." He shook his head and gripped the back of his chair with white knuckled hands. "She scared the spit right out of me."
Squall looked around, his face a mixture of fear and confusion. Zell looked at his friend and then at Laguna. Stifling a smile, he wondered if Squall realized how much he looked like his father when he had that expression on his face. For a brief moment, Zell was able to forget what was happening.
"Doesn't she realize they'll never agree to that?" Squall asked.
Iris stepped forward, idly swinging her tristaff. She was biting her lip, a thoughtful expression on her face. "I'm willing to bet an entire year's paycheque that she's counting on it."
Zell slapped his head with the palm of his hand, cursing himself for blind stupidity. Bahamut had said that humans had to prove their worthiness. Chimera had heard him say it. Her solution was elegantly simple.
"She's setting us up," he said swearing fiercely. "She's trying to make sure that Bahamut withdraws his support! She knows they'll never agree to that, she knows they'd never give up their homes without a fight."
Zell looked at Laguna and Squall. He felt he understood Chimera pretty well, he'd seen enough to know there was one solution. Once chance to beat her. She wanted them to fight alone. Zell knew that there was no way that they could win if that happened.
"Sir," he said addressing Laguna with all the politeness he could muster. He desperately needed the man to listen to what he was going to say. "This is a test. She's using Bahamut's rules against us. We have only once chance to beat her at her own game."
Laguna nodded encouragingly. "Go one," he said.
Zell told them what they had to do.
*** *** ***
Chimera had arrived exactly seventy-two hours from the time she had made her ultimatum. Coming in over the sea, she could see an incredible amount of activity. She did not like having been unaware of their activities but she had been determined to strictly obey the spirit of what she thought Bahamut would have wanted. The humans would not be able to blame anyone but themselves. She had left them to their own devices so there would be nothing to fault her for. Perhaps, she thought to herself, Bahamut will be so disgusted that he will not merely be neutral, he may even side with me.
She was able to see masses of warships gliding to, and from, the capital. The coastline was crawling with military vehicles and personnel of all kinds. As she approached, her keen eyesight could make out a shocking diversity. SeeD troop carriers, white SeeD sail ships, Galbadian war ships, and much to her surprise, several Esthar destroyers. She could pick out SeeD uniforms mixed in with the Galbadian uniforms, something that actually surprised her. She could see several Esthar cyborgs watching her as she flew over them.
Having reached the land, she could see the dust trails of heavy traffic that stretched as far as the eye could see. Huge caravans of military troop carriers were travelling towards Deling City, while other equally large caravans were headed away towards Dollet and Timber. The trains too, it seemed, had been drafted into service. Galbadia and Balamb Garden were flanking the city like winged avengers, bristling with huge amounts of weaponry. Hovering slightly behind them were five Esthar Starburst-class war cruisers, sleek and elegant atmosphere-capable space craft.
Chimera was impressed. It looked as though they were massing every ounce of power at their disposal in a bid to defeat her. She could only assume that they wanted to kill her as badly as she wished to kill them. She felt an oddly perverse sense of pleasure. They were less likely to run away this time, their hate would make them stay and fight. Good, she thought with a sense of relief. She was really looking forward to a good fight.
Having finally reached Deling City, she immediately headed for the government buildings that contained the Council Chambers. She found the streets to be completely deserted except for the military. This did not surprise her. While she did not think that they could have completed a full evacuation of the city in just three days, she had expected the government to declare martial law and send everyone to shelters. It would have been tactical suicide to let civilians remain on the streets.
She caught a glance of soldiers, both SeeD and Galbadian, working together in an efficiently coordinated ballet. Watching their smooth, effortless co-operation, she couldn't help but feel a sense of discomfort. Enemies, working together without any tension, setting aside their differences to help one another deal with a crisis. It was so out of character for humans. It bothered her, making a gnawing hole in the pit of her stomach. She felt another vague twinge of doubt. Had she missed something, somehow?
The idea that she might have misjudged the enemy bothered her on many levels. She had not expected them to cooperate with each other, even in the face of extermination. She had been anticipating a disorganized defense, rife with internal conflict and foreign disinterest. Why would Esthar help Galbadia? Why would SeeD? Galbadia was their enemy, its destruction should have seemed like an advantage, something to encourage. Humans did not look beyond the moment, too invested in today.
A sudden chill came over Chimera. How wrong was she, exactly? What other assumptions were wrong? For one brief moment, she had serious doubt about everything she had ever believed. Watching the soldiers below her, she noted the smooth professionalism with which they worked. A sudden though hit her. These were highly trained soldiers, used to following orders that they didn't necessarily understand. If they were ordered to co-operate with each other, that was what they would do. The SeeD must have been contracted. Esthar's leader, wasn't he a former Galbadian soldier? They were not like normal humans, strict military life had honed them beyond the cattle-like norm.
Chimera comforted herself with that thought, that her analysis had not taken the military mindset into account. It was only a miscalculation and nothing more, she decided forcefully. The nagging hole in the pit of her stomach still remained however. She ignored both it and the dimming sound of Hyne's song.
She landed just in front of the Great Hall, a large colonnaded structure in the classical design. A platoon of Galbadian soldiers stood guard at the front. They watched her warily, with their hands on their weapons but they did nothing. She ignored them and entered the building. Inside, she could not see anyone in the halls. She could sense only a handful of individuals somewhere up ahead, in the Chambers itself. The rest of the building was empty. Outside, she could hear the roar of vehicle engines.
Rising upward, she phased her way towards the Council Chambers, that was where the humans that she sensed were waiting. She was not concerned. Even if they had prepared a trap, it did not matter. None of their weapons could pass through the soul fire. Once they were stripped of junctions and the ability to use para-magic, they would be defenseless. Only the Sorceress Rinoa was a possible threat, one that would soon be eliminated.
She rose up through the floor of the Council Chamber, wrapped in the pillar of green fire that she had begun to think of as her soul fire. She saw President Maraj seated on his huge chair, the one that had been commissioned by Vinzer Deling. It was, she noted, almost as large as the deceased president's ego. Flanking the president were two men that she recognized. The first was one Richard Caraway, Typhon's long time rival. He was wearing his dress uniform, a beautiful sabre hanging from his belt. The other man was Laguna Loire, the Galbadian soldier turned Esthar President. He was dressed neatly, but casually, in dark leather pants and denim jacket. His long hair was tied back in a rather business-like manner.
The SeeD were standing in front of them, all wearing SeeD combat uniforms as opposed to their more casual clothing. The sorceress was there as well, much to Chimera's pleasure. It would save her the trouble of hunting the woman down. A dog sat patiently at her feet, looking up at her occasionally with adoring eyes. When it deigned to look at Chimera, it growled ominously.
Something about the entire scene felt completely unnatural to her and Chimera was almost positive that she was in the middle of some kind of trap. What that could possibly be, eluded her. She could sense nothing out of the ordinary. There were no others in the building except the ones in front of her. She had killed far more than them with no effort. What were they up to?
President Maraj rose out of the too-large chair, looking at her with the steely confidence that had been missing from the man since being elected president. He was a tall man, with a thin, lithe build, straight black hair and soft brown skin. She could see that middle age had begun to settle both in his hair and in his stomach. Still, he was a handsome man who had learned too late the courage needed to lead his nation.
General Caraway positioned himself directly in front of his president, looking very much like the warrior that he was. The sorceress Rinoa stood next to him, the SeeD leader and his companions spread out in front of them all. They all had the fierce, cold look of the professional about them. They wanted to fight, Chimera was positive of it.
"I have returned, as I said I would," Chimera said in a loud ringing voice. "What is your response?"
President Maraj stood facing her, his head held high. His hand gripped the arms of his chair, the only visible sign of his nervous fear. "What you have demanded is unfair, Chimera Thirteen," he said in a clear strong voice. "You are acting on assumptions made twenty years ago and you never attempted to negotiate peacefully for fair restitution. You do not act with the honour expected of a Galbadian soldier."
He held up his hand against her exultant laughter. She noticed Zell muttering under his breath but was not concerned enough to pay any real attention to it. They were going to live down to her expectation. They were about to seal their own death warrants, she gloated to herself.
Maraj shook his head sadly. "Did it never once occur to you to lodge a formal protest with the Human Rights Commission? Did you ever even want to try peace? You were badly treated, Chimera. You have every right to be angry but what you are looking for is revenge, not justice."
"Does it matter?" was her snide response. Did the man seriously think that peace was possible? How could he entertain the naive idea that some commission would side with a genetically engineered product, instead of the humans that had created her. She could not believe that he could be so hopelessly naive.
"You must be delusional to believe this stupidity," she said with a contemptuous laugh. He seemed to be even more foolish than she'd previously thought.
Laguna Loire shook his head sadly, a resigned expression on his face, and patted Maraj's shoulder comfortingly. "She isn't interested in reasonable discussion, Aled," he said in a soft but firm voice. He looked at her with his bright blue eyes, his lips thin with frustration. "Fanatics never are."
Chimera sneered back at him. "No, I do not wish to discuss this, I demand an answer!" she said relentlessly. She was growing weary of their continual delay of the inevitable. She wanted this over with. Loire was right; she was not interested in continuing a senseless conversation that could serve no purpose. She wanted to hear them refuse.
"We accede to your demands."
Chimera blinked. She could not have heard him correctly. "What?" she asked in disbelief. The strength seemed to drain out of her limbs and she could feel a tremble start in her hands. No.
President Maraj sat down once more. His smile was wane, yet triumphant. "You heard correctly. We agree to your conditions. We are evacuating Galbadia as we speak." He slumped into the huge chair, seemingly drained of all energy. He made an encompassing gesture. "You have won."
Chimera stumbled backward, stunned into silence. This was wrong! This was not how things were supposed to have gone. He was supposed to refuse. He was supposed to act like a human. Humans were selfish and narrow minded, caring for nothing but instant gratification. This... this was not right. No. No.
"Bahamut!" Zell suddenly shouted. Chimera gazed at him through eyes that were dull with shock. Now she understood the trap that they had laid out for her. Zell had been summoning Bahamut. The Lord of all the Firstborn would see her failure and their success. He would see that they had done right by her when all that she had wanted him to see was her vision of them.
She could only shake her head in blind denial as she saw the Great Dragon appear. "No," she stammered. "No." She tried to will him out of her sight, tried to deny it. He was still there. "No!"
Zell looked up at the huge dragon, his hands raised upwards. "Bahamut," he cried in a loud voice, "Are we worthy? We have done as Chimera has asked, as you wanted us to do."
The Great Dragon nodded at the young man, an aura of approval surrounding him. His voice was thunderously loud as he answered the SeeD's question. It was also filled with pride.
"Man is worthy. My children and I stand with you."
Bahamut then looked at her. He regarded her thoughtfully, whatever he felt was indecipherable. Chimera bit her lip, finding comfort in the pain. She shook her head, trying to deny it all, unable to accept it.
"Well?" he asked her.
Zell folded his arms over his chest, his expression a mixture of anger and satisfaction. "Congratulations," he said in a snide tone. "You got what you wanted."
The warships, the truck and trains, evacuating humans out of Deling City and all the outlying towns and villages. SeeD and soldier to keep her distracted, so that she wouldn't pay attention. Humans were leaving Galbadia and Bahamut had found them worthy of life.
Chimera's cry of anguish was piercing. The sound of illusions shattered.
"Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"
*** *** ***
Zell looked at her, unable to believe the ease of their victory. Chimera was crumpled up on the floor, weeping. Her whole body seemed broken, lying curled up on the floor in a fetal position, her head wrapped protectively around her head. Zell could not understand the depths of her despair at first. He began to wonder what it was that she hated so much about humans, what it could be that left her so shattered.
The confrontation in Bahamut's Court had been loud and he'd been too busy yelling back at her to really give any thought to what she'd been saying. Standing there, he tried to recall what she had said to them. He could recall the loathing in her voice, her revulsion for humanity. Every thing about her seemed oddly childish, like a toddler having a temper tantrum. What bothered him most was a brief recollection he had, a snippet of something that she'd said.
"I am proof of your kind's inherent unworthiness." Trying to remember things he'd barely been paying attention to before, it seemed that she'd repeated that several times, only he'd been too angry to notice it at the time. Did she hate them because she hated her own existence? Zell shook his head incredulously. He couldn't believe that she was, or ever had been, sane. Either this was all a bizarre form of suicide or she was trying to eliminate everything that reminded her of what she was.
He saw Iris take a hesitant step forward, her face filled with sympathy. Zell couldn't understand how Iris could be so forgiving but he found that he couldn't really hate Chimera either. Still, he reached out his arm to block her. He didn't want Iris anywhere near Chimera, not now. Iris looked at him, her expression infinitely sad.
A lost soul, beyond redemption. Even if Chimera repented, she had gone too far, done too much to ever be forgiven. That left them with the ugly question: What do they do with her now? Any normal prison was laughable, it would depend on her good will. Good will was not something that she had been demonstrating since she'd become free. It would likely take her less than ten minutes to break out of D-District Prison, that was if they could even get her in.
Perhaps they could imprison her like Adel had been, he was sure that Laguna would agree. The idea of having her literally hanging over their heads was not very appealing. It was exactly the same kind of solution that Ultima Weapon up with in the first place. It had not worked for Adel either, come to think of it. Both had simply started up right where they'd left off. Zell could thank Hyne that Ultimecia had never heard of Chimera. A Chimera possessed by Ultimecia was not something he wanted to imagine.
The final option was the most efficient, logical, and least appealing of all. They could kill her, right now while she was incapacitated. They could grab a sword, behead her and be done with it. Zell didn't want to be the executioner though. It different when you faced some menacing evil-doer but she didn't seem very menacing anymore. He knew it was stupid but he didn't think that he could do it and he didn't think that he had the right to expect someone else to. Still, he glanced at Squall, feeling like a guilty worm, hoping that his friend would do it.
A gust of wind and the sound of colossal wings flapping. "Well?" The smell of immense age and wildness and something else filled the air. The primitive rabbit in Zell reacted to the presence of the being above him.
Zell looked up. He was still there, hovering over them. Bahamut looked as though he was waiting for an answer to his question. He probably did want to know what she would do now but Zell didn't really think that it mattered that much. Any apology she could offer was too late to make a difference. You can't kill hundreds of men, women and children then have any expectation of forgiveness. The world didn't work that way.
Soft laughter chilled him to the bone. Chimera laughed, her voice low and mocking. She rose from the floor, hovering over the very spot where she'd been collapsed in despair only moments earlier. Her whole body arced backwards, her hands clenched into fists. The air was distorted around her and the vague outline he'd seen before erupted into existence. Huge dragon's wings unfurled from her back, almost demon-like. She looked at them with amusement. Hellish, dying stars flickered in her eyes. What humanity that had once been reflected in them was now extinguished.
"I must thank you, Old One," she said in a slow, amused drawl. "All that held me in check was what little humanity I possessed. Dead now, dead and gone. All the former things have passed away." Her laughter was a mockery of them. The dead malice she exuded was almost overwhelming.
"You have shattered my illusions, my hopes, my dreams," she continued. "You have stripped me of every lie I believed in. Did this help you? Hmmm? Did it make any difference at all?" She looked down at them and Zell had never been so frightened in his entire life. Who would have thought that the total absence of hate could be so malevolent? The hate that had driven her was gone, totally dried up. Nothing seemed to have taken its place however, she seemed like an emotional void. Now at last, he knew what evil truly was. It was looking at him through dead eyes.
She pointed a long elegant finger at Bahamut. "You loved them all along, didn't you? You cherish these humans for some obscure and indecipherable reason. You love this entire realm of existence with every fabric of your being." She nodded to herself, smiling at him, and completely ignoring the humans in her midst. "I cared about Galbadia. I loved it as much as you love them. I understand completely the agony of losing what you hold so dear."
Bahamut roared, his wings spreading in an impressive display, and Zell began to wonder exactly how bad this was. It already sounded pretty awful, likely it was worse than that. Zell was shocked when Bahamut suddenly struck out at her with his Mega Flare, utterly destroying the area around her. Chimera, however, remained untouched. Zell swallowed nervously. He'd never seen any enemy capable of ignoring the Mega Flare with such casual ease.
"Damn," he swore under his breath.
Chimera cocked her head and smiled but the smile on her lips was cold, mask-like. Her dead, emotionless words were directed at Bahamut. "What you love, I will take away. I think I will enjoy your pain as you watch me empty this world of all human existence. In the end it will all be mine anyway."
"You are lost," Bahamut growled in resignation.
"No," she laughed in return. "I am found. Where I was blind, now I see."
She launched herself upward, smashing effortlessly through cement and steel. Zell dove towards Iris, covering her with his body, trying to shield her from the falling chunks of ceiling. Waiting for a few minutes, he looked at Iris. She was covered in powdered cement and dirt, looking as though she'd been dusted with flour. She was smiling up at him. "I love you, you big goof," she said smiling broadly. She gave him a sound kiss. "Lets kill that bitch, shall we?" Zell could only manage a dumbfounded grin and nodded.
Helping Iris up, he found the courage to whisper an I Love You in return. Even in the middle of a ruined building, probably about to die, her smile made everything seem just wonderful. It seemed wildly inappropriate but, at the same time, exactly perfect.
"Wait, Secondborn. I will bring you to where you must go but first we must speak."
They looked up at the Great Dragon. Zell was rather hoping for some sort of explanation because things were far too confusing right now. Bahamut seemed rather small, almost human sized now. He furled his wings and sat on his haunches. Unlike Chimera's, his eyes reflected emotion. He seemed very sad.
"I had hoped to force her to abandon her delusions. It was my wish that she change her path before it became too late. I wanted to show her proof so that she could see that she was wrong." The Great Dragon made a sound like a sigh. "It was that or destroy her outright."
Quistis stood there, disheveled and dusty but still the essence of a professional. Her arms were folded lightly over her chest and her face had that vaguely disapproving instructor's expression on it. "Meaning no disrespect, Lord Bahamut," she said in a cool tone, "but I think you should have chosen to do that from the very beginning."
Bahamut shook his head, a wide swinging motion. Sooty smoke drifted from his half closed jaw. "However she was made, she is of my flesh, she is my daughter. Eden agreed but foresaw problems I had hoped to overcome. You must understand that a parent's duty is to his child, regardless of the technicalities of her creation."
Zell blinked. Was that what it had all been about? The questions, the test, the mind numbing fear of failure? Bahamut had been trying to make Chimera change her mind? All because he felt obligated to be her parent after some lunatic scientist had played god with his tissue. Zell wasn't sure what to think. Either the Guardian was a highly moral being or he was simply crazy. Zell didn't quite know how to tell which was the case.
Bahamut seemed to expand, growing ever larger. "And yet, you are my children as well, given to me in sacred trust by Hyne. To you, Hyne's Secondborn, is my first obligation."
Suddenly they were outside, in the fields surrounding Deling City. Chimera hovered high above them, marked by her dragon's wings and telltale green fire.
"Look!" exclaimed Rinoa, clutching at Squall's arm and pointing. Deling City was surrounded in a shell of blue-white light. It was the same barrier that they had seen two years earlier, when they'd fought Ultimecia in the distant future. Zell had always assumed that she had put up the barriers to keep the people in. It had been the Guardians, keeping Ultimecia out.
Chimera was firing volley after volley of fireballs, not at the city, but at something tiny that was positioned over it. Shielding his eyes, Zell tried to see what it was that Chimera was attacking. Iris peered up through a pair of viewers then wordlessly handed them to Zell.
It was tiny little Carbunkle. He was curled up in a little ball, seemingly oblivious to her attack. Massive waves of power were radiating out from him, spreading in every direction. Every wave of the diminutive Guardian's power seemed to strengthen the barrier. Chimera's bombardment seemed to be taking its toll, however, because Zell was alarmed to see Carbunkle falter under the withering attack.
"Its Carbunkle!" Zell shouted, throwing the viewer to back to Iris. "He's protecting the city. We've got to help him."
Chimera was too high up. Zell realized that they would have to get her lower if they were going to fight her. Zell cast Firaga, hoping that the spell could reach up that high. The spell was able to reach Chimera but she casually waved it off, sending the spell careening off to detonate harmlessly. Zell tried again and Squall joined in with a Blizzaga spell. This time, while Chimera flung away the Firaga, Squall's Blizzaga struck her. It didn't do anything.
Quistis shook her head. "She's immune to elementals?" She shook her head angrily. Was this Echid's work or a side effect of becoming a Guardian? Not that it really mattered anymore. "Siren!" she called. Siren's answer was instantaneous but to the horror of both the young SeeD and her Guardian, the attack resulted in virtually no damage at all.
Siren hung her head, tears streaming down her lovely golden face. "I failed you," she said then vanished.
"She's laughing at us," growled Iris, watching the newly born Guardian through her viewers. She clenched her fist, shaking it futilely up at the object of her disgust. "Oh, I hate her. I can't believe I felt sorry for her." She cast Meltdown, certain that it would succeed. While it seemed to have some effect on Chimera, it was not nearly enough.
Zell cast Meteor then Ultima in rapid succession. Chimera did not even seem to notice that she'd been hit with some of the most powerful magic in the world. A minor twinge was the only reaction he saw. Iris was firing her handguns but they didn't seem to be doing any good. The others were all casting magic, some elemental, others not.
Chimera continued her single-minded bombardment of Carbunkle. The tiny Guardian was beginning to weaken and the barrier surrounding the city began to sputter fitfully. Once he was down, the barrier, all the barriers, would be gone. If they didn't stop her now, there would be no stopping her later.
Squall called out for Diablo, hoping that the demon lord's gravitational attack would be the thing to succeed against her. Diablo appeared instantly, responding to his summons far faster than even the best compatibility could offer. His spectacular gravitational attack was only partially successful. While it did no damage, it did drive her closer to the SeeDs.
She glared at the demon lord then sneered and lobbed another barrage of fireballs at Carbunkle. Diablo vanished, cursing her name in language that made Zell's skin crawl.
Zell slammed his fist into the ground, frustrated and angry. Nothing was working. He saw Iris toss aside her spent guns and run towards the cases that she had brought with her from Esthar. They had been sitting in the fields, brought there by the conscientious Bahamut. She began assembling something. Zell stood near her, ready to defend her but wary of breaking her concentration. Whatever it was that she was assembling looked complicated and in her line of work, mistakes were very bad.
Selphie turned to Irvine. "Irv, do something! She's killing him!" Her eyes pleaded with him. She felt so utterly helpless. Nothing that they had done so far had been of any use. She clutched her nunchuku in frustration. Having seen everything else fail, she did not think that even The End could work.
Irvine fired off round after round of pulse ammo. None of the weapon's fire seemed to be able to penetrate the green fire which surrounded her. He tried switching to Fast Ammo hoping to overwhelm her protective shield through sheer numbers. The fire claimed it all.
"Quezacotl!" Irvine cried, summoning the Guardian that he had always been close to. Irvine was still surprised to see the Guardian instantly appear, born from a bolt of lightning. Quezacotl struck at her, lightning arcing towards her. They watched helplessly as she casually shrugged off power that was enough to light the entire planet for years.
The Carbunkle's barrier began to fracture. With no other option left, Quezacotl placed himself between Chimera and her target. Diablo appeared and took his place with him, both determined to shield their brother from further attack. Siren reappeared, embracing the wounded Carbunkle, shielding him with her own body.
"You'll not have him," Quezacotl said in a huge voice. He swooped down closer to Chimera, still keeping himself between his enemy and his brother. He spat more lightning at her.
"Fight me and die, Thunder God!" Chimera said, rushing at him with blurring speed. She slashed his wings with her sharp claws before he could react. The living fire which enveloped her whipped out to wrap around him. Quezacotl shrieked, a piercing cry, and fell plummeting towards the ground, his wings turned to ash.
"No!" Rinoa said in a horrified voice. All this pain and suffering, she couldn't stand it any longer. She couldn't turn her back on the brave Guardian. Rinoa leapt up, held aloft by snowy white wings, her arms outstretched. She caught him, wrapping her arms around the wounded Guardian. The aether crackled as she summoned up all the magic within her. The hideous injuries vanished as Rinoa held Quezacotl in that loving embrace.
Chimera's full attention was now on the SeeDs below her. She descended, heading straight towards the vulnerable pair. Rinoa was so intent on healing the wounded Guardian that she did not look up. All her energy was devoted to Quezacotl.
Zell continued to hit Chimera with every spell at his disposal but none were working and he was rapidly running out of magic reserves. The dead-faced Guardian laughed at them, hollow and ugly sounds. His anger turned to fear when he saw that Rinoa had still not seen that death was bearing down on her.
"Rinoa!" Zell, Quistis and Squall all shouted at the same time. Rinoa looked up in time to see what was coming. She involuntarily jerked back just as Chimera's clawed hand slashed towards her. Both she and the wounded Quezacotl crashed to the ground. Blood began to soak the ground.
They rushed to her side. Rinoa was still breathing but only barely. Blood was streaming out of her nose, mouth and ears. Her skin was a pasty white and bones were jutting out in unnatural angles. Zell thought that she looked as though every bone in her body had been broken. It was the huge ugly gash on her chest that was hard to look at. Chimera's claws seemed to have sliced right through her ribs.
No one bothered pointing out the obvious. Rinoa had to get medical treatment right away or she would die. They couldn't do that if Carbunkle had to keep the barriers up against Chimera. Still wounded, Quezacotl had dragged himself to Rinoa's side and watched her, crying piteously. The sound tore at their hearts. Squall closed his eyes, trying to deny the pain he felt.
Squall draped his jacket over Rinoa then turned to look up at Chimera's maleficent smile. "Lets do this." Not even the coldest glacier had ever been so chilly as the look on Squall's face.
Chimera's laughter was both mocking and hollow. "You are more stupid than I'd thought. You still believe that you can kill me?" She shrugged, dropping even lower to hover not far over the ground. "The sorceress is as good as dead," she said, a faint smile of satisfaction on her face. "You can soon join her."
Zell had had enough. He was tired of this woman and her lunatic obsession with death. He would not stand by and just wait for Rinoa to die. Zell grabbed a stone and hurtled it at her, a vain attempt to express his rage. He put all the force of his anger into that stone. It passed through the fire, striking her full in the chest. The force of the blow knocked Chimera to the ground. Zell stared, astonished. Immune to magic and bullets but not rocks?! He grabbed another, larger stone, and threw that too. It struck her on the side of her head. Chimera looked vaguely surprised as she got to her feet.
"Hyne take your soul!" screamed someone on outraged fury. It was Iris and she had what looked like a rocket launcher hoisted onto her shoulder. "Laugh this off, you murderous bitch," Iris screamed and launched the rocket. With everything that had happened, Zell was not expecting much. Rocks were the only proven weapon so far but he didn't expect to win with them.
The rocket exploded on contact with the column of living fire that surrounded Chimera. Millions of tiny shards of Deep Sea crystal penetrated the barrier and sand deep into Chimera's flesh. Chimera cried out and dropped to the ground like a rag doll, bleeding from thousands of cuts. She raised one shaky hand and launched a fireball. Weak as it was, it still drove Squall to the ground, knocking the wind out of him.
Bahamut appeared out of nowhere, unsummoned. He raised his head and roared, his wings spread. "I summon thee, my servant. Undo that which was done. Avenge me." His eyes were ablaze, his wings beating a maelstrom that battered Chimera mercilessly.
The entire area suddenly burst into flame. Zell whirled around, wondering what was happening. Who was it that the Dragon Lord had summoned? Chimera seemed to guess because she cried out in outraged anguish.
The glorious Phoenix appeared soaring majestically into the sky. The lonely piercing cry reverberated through them. "I answer the call of my Lord," the Phoenix said in that avian voice. "And I obey." One wing feather brushed Rinoa's lips and her body jerked, her eyes fluttering open. She sat up, looking somewhat confused. The other wing brushed against the fallen Quezacotl and he arose, healed.
Phoenix fire burned Chimera, the first magic that had any effect. Dazed and numbed by the crystal shards that had driven themselves into her body, Chimera was struggling to her feet, battered and bleeding, but still determined to kill them. Zell had had enough. He didn't care anymore. It was going to end now.
He remembered Ceta Echid's warning and ran towards Squall. Scooping up the Lion Heart, Zell ran towards Chimera, holding up the blade. He was not going to give her another chance at his friends. It was not going to happen.
Chimera's expression was one of actual anger as she stared at the Phoenix perched on Bahamut's right shoulder. She turned her attention to Zell. She looked at him, her expression almost contemptuous. "Do you think you can?"
"Yes." Zell swung the Lion Heart. He had none of the finesse and skill with the weapon that Squall had but a sharp edge was a sharp edge. Zell knew how to use that. She had tried to kill Iris, she had nearly succeeded in killing Rinoa. An entire village was dead because of her. Now Chimera would pay.
Chimera's body dropped and Zell watched, a little horrified, as the dragon's wings seemed to peel off of her decapitated corpse then fade away. Zell shuddered then looked at the bloody weapon. It didn't seem right to just return it like that so Zell wiped the gunblade clean on the grass. Walking back, he handed the weapon back to his friend. He felt grimy, dirty, and a little unclean. He wanted to take a shower, hoping to wash the day off of him. He wanted to go home.
"Borrowed your gunblade," Zell said to Squall, handing the weapon back to his friend. Squall was kneeling beside Rinoa, hugging her. She laughingly protested that she was alright and that all this fuss was just a little silly. Squall nodded at Zell and took the gunblade back. He didn't look towards Chimera's body.
"...Whatever."
Bahamut appeared out of nowhere. Once more he shrank down to more human proportions. All the Guardians were gone and so was the barrier around the city. Bahamut made a rumbling sound that might have been a sigh. His wings rustled restlessly as he beckoned them closer.
"You have done well. She can no longer do you harm."
"Huh?" Zell grunted in surprise. "You make it sound as though she's not dead." He jutted his thumb backwards, pointing back towards her dead body. "What I did was pretty final, if you ask me."
The others noisily agreed but Bahamut shook his head. "Were she human, yes. She is not. Have no fear though," he said reassuringly. "She will never again bother you." He sounded extremely confident. "I had sought to change her path. Since she did not, her fate was sealed." He made that rumbling sound once more, sounding regretful.
Squall wrapped an arm protectively around Rinoa's shoulder. "Are you sure?" They all looked at the Great Dragon expectantly. They had no wish to do this again in a few years.
"Very." Bahamut inclined his head towards Rinoa, a gesture of respect. "I thank you for aiding my child, Quezacotl." He said gratefully. He spread his wings and flew into the sky. "Reassure your kin and kind then go home. You have earned your peace." He vanished into thin air.
Zell gave Iris a sound kiss, causing her to giggle. "Good idea, hon, bringing that rocket. How about dinner tonight," he asked smiling at her.
"Yes," she purred grinning devilishly back at him. "I have interesting ideas on after dinner entertainment." She winked at him, a very naughty expression on her face.
Oh hot damn, Zell thought, feeling very pleased with himself. This day was looking up. They all started heading back to Deling City. Some of them were even looking forward to telling people what had happened.
Zell's mind was on other things.
*** *** ***
Epilogue
A human had invaded the inner sanctum that was the dragon's cave. After thousands of years of hiding from man, they had finally arrived. The dragon rumbled angrily, offended at the intrusion. Humans had no place here. They were not welcome but the dragoness had long since learned to avoid their kind. She had spent millennia choosing to hide rather than fight but this was going too far. She would kill the human, char the brazen creature.
The human came into view and one look at the intruder made her change her mind. She knew who this was, this silver haired female. This, the dragoness realized, was an opportunity not to be wasted. She wished she had done more research but still, this was too great a temptation to resist.
"Why are you here?" she rumbled threateningly.
The human looked startled, surprised to find herself before the owner of the cave. She was wearing finery that had been torn and ripped, her neatly coifed hair in disarray. Her eyes were wide and she smelled of fear. She looked as though she had been running for her life.
"I, I was seeking refuge," the young woman stammered. "I needed a hiding place. They're after me. If they catch me, they'll kill me." Despite the power that radiated from the woman, she was trembling in fear, her nerves shattered, her hands shaking. She exuded inexperience and naivete.
"Who are 'they'?"
"SeeD," was the human's immediate response. Her voice was seething with hatred.
SeeD. The name was abhorrent, drilling into the dragoness' ears. She roared loudly, making the young woman cover her ears with her hands. The human cowered near the cave wall.
"What is your name, creeping thing?" asked the dragoness though she knew quite well who she faced. Still, she wanted confirmation. If she was right, this could become interesting. This could be her final chance at revenge.
"Ultimecia."
The dragoness chuckled, unable to believe her luck. This was perfect, now she could have revenge and this fool would be the perfect tool to accomplish it. Hate and fear could be useful leashes.
"I too consider the SeeD my enemies," the dragoness crooned, lowering her head and wings so as not to frighten the silly human to death. "I will help you."
Ultimecia's face lit up, hope springing into her eyes. "You'll fight them for me?"
"Better than that," crooned the dragoness. "I will show you how to become like Hyne, a goddess over all creation."
Ultimecia's eyes widened and her face took on a thoughtful expression. The idea of godhood seemed to appeal to the besieged young sorceress. The dragoness knew that it would. With a curtsy of respect, Ultimecia asked, "I am in your debt, Great One. Who are you to grant such knowledge?"
The dragoness was not sure what to tell her, she had not though about it in so long. The old name belonged to a body long dead. Those times were too far into the past to mean anything to her anymore, save the desire for revenge. She wondered what she was, who she might be now. A new name suddenly struck her and this one would be a true name, one of her own choosing, not a mere label on a petri dish. No more code words and sequence number designations.
"I am the Guardian Tiamat."
Fin.