Final Fantasy IX and everything related to it is Squaresoft's property.

This story was written by QualmC661.

Final Fantasy IX:

The Future of the Past

Chapter Four

THEN AEIN'S eye blinked in the back of his head. His eye was not really effective. It could not hardly do anything except make out shapes, and if it turned, it was very painful. Blinking was impossible; there was no eyelid. No the eye was very unhealthy. Being born with it, as a defect, he decided to put it to good use. By the age of ten, during school, he could see when kids were coming to beat on him. He would have at least thirty seconds in advance to do anything.

Now it was giving him another advantage. Aein could easily see Zidane and some other bulky, shadowy shape. He leaned to Terigan, and whispered, "Do not look behind you." Terigan listened. "They are here. I can see them." Terigan straightened up, and looked at Nmi.

"I think it is time to use the machine," he said quietly, jerking his eyes towards Zidane and Baku. Nmi didn't even look, and did his best at acting.

"...Yessir, if you wish." Terigan walked up to the bottom, silver ball, and looked at it. He could see his reflection, and that of those around him. He couldn't understand why he didn't see it before. Their enemie's reflections were caught in the ball.

Zidane watched as he put his hand on the silver texture, and simply disappeared. Nmi did the same, and then Aein. He turned to Baku. "What do we do now?"

"...Let's go in." Zidane was about to object, but he had heard what Terigan had explained about the machine; it could change anything. Anything. That meant that anything was in danger.

ZIDANE TOUCHED the outside of the bottom silver, reflective ball. It may sound comical, but it was true; he felt like his fingers could do anything they wanted. It was a very different sensation. They felt much stronger and more powerful than they had ever been. Then he put his palm on it. Now it felt as powerful, like he could carry hundreds of bricks. Bricks? Trees. Trees?...

Then he was pulled off his feet. He felt like he was going to smash right into the surface, but he glided gently through it.

Baku watched in amazement. He then touched the surface himsef, and was pulled into it rapidly.

THEY BOTH floated in nothing. One couldn't say it was black; it wasn't. One couldn't say it was even empty; it wasn't. It was indescribable by words. There were no colors, nothing between white and black. Nothing, not even nothing itself, was inside it. Just Zidane and Baku. Zidane reached for something - anything - without success. He kicked around, going nowhere...there was nowhere to go, or to come from. Then they both suddenly realized they could see everything.

Everything. Not by sight, but by knowledge. They were thinking about everything they already knew about at once. Zidane thought it would hurt his head after a while, but after ten minutes, it hadn't affected him any. He was thinking about Alexandria, Tantalus, Vivi, Garnet, everything.

Then he tried to think about when he wrote the letter. That should help me, he thought. If I can think about everything, I'll know if I really wrote it or not.

He appeared in a stone-layered room, in one of the columns. The one he used to live in. It was the farthest East. He saw himself sitting at a table. He was writing something.... Walking to the figure of himself, he began to speak. "Hey." He didn't answer, just continued writing. Zidane looked down at the paper his other self was writing. It read:

Order to Atrogghus and Terigan Bersobin

From King Zidane Tribal and Garnet Tribal, Leaders of Alexandria

Zidane: Greetings to you both, but time is short. I am assigning you both a new work order: I need you to fire upon Alexandria until everyone living there is gone, and not a building is standing. Do not ask why. It may seem surprising, but you aer to attack the hour you recieve this message. I will meet you in person soon.

He was stunned. He took two steps back, and looked around the room. He had actually written the letter? Then how come he also remembered not writing it, too? He saw himself, again, beside a fire, throwing wood into it. It was quickly dying. Then he looked back to himself writing the letter.

Both are what I remember. He remembered putting the wood itno the fire and writing the letter at the same time. But why?

He suddenly found himself sitting in a room he had never seen before. He looked around it, and saw stone walls. He was back in Alexandria. Beautiful red veils hung down the walls. Magnificent stone architecture promised for a castle and city that would last forever...

He saw Nmi writing a letter beside him, just two feet away. How come Nmi hadn't seen him yet? "Nmi." No answer. "Nmi, can you hear me?" Apparently, he couldn't; he gave no answer. The man continued writing. Zidane looked over his shoulder to see what he was writing.

Before he could read it, he was surprised by the door slamming open. He and Nmi turned, but Nmi's shoulder went through Zidane's stomach...without an impact. Nmi stood and greeted Terigan, the taller brother who immediately walked toward him. They shook hands, and Terigan ran to the door, shutting and locking it.

"I've found something."

"What is it?" Terigan quickly pulled out a small piece of yellowed, folded paper, and handed it to Nmi. "...What is it?" he asked again, observing the drawing. Zidane looked closely at it, and realized that it was a quickly hand drawn picture of the machine he had used to do what he was doing.

"It is a machine. A machine used to change."

"A machine used to change...change what?"

"Everything."

"...Sure. Where did you get this from?" Nmi asked.

"A guy downstairs arrived to tell me about it in private. He says he has the machine, and he wants to talk about letting us use it."

"...If he has such a machine, why doesn't he just do it himself?"

"I don't know. He just insists that it's real, and won't let up. He wants us to come and look at it."

Zidane now saw that he was in a basement of a building. There was a black haired man standing with the two brothers, talking.

"You two wish to see it?"

"Listen, leave us alone," ordered Nmi. "It's that simple. If you want money, go talk to a laywer. He can give you a loan up to thirt-"

"I don't want your money. I want to share with you a piece of technology that is very primitive and old."

"Than we don't want to see-"

"Yes, you do. This was made before people came to Gaia. They designed it to change the world to how they like it."

"...And why has no one used it?" he asked. Terigan was beaming with glee.

"Who said they haven't used it? They have, just not to where you see it." Nmi cocked an eyebrow. "Understand that if something changes in your past, you will remember it as that." He gestured to a window. As Nmi and Terigan walked to it, they both stopped halfway. Zidane walked closer to see what they were looking at. He stopped, too, after seeing it.

He saw the machine in a large, paved, indoor room. Men and women were taking notes on it, drawing pictures, making their best assessments.

Then he found himself inside the room. Through a window, he could see that it was pitch black outside, probably late that night. Terigan, Nmi, and the man were all standing right beside the machine. "You may be the first person in this century to use it, if you wish." Terigan walked up to it, and touched it. As he was lifted off the ground, he let go, and fell to the floor.

"What should I do?" he asked.

"Whatever you want. Someone you don't like? Something you really hate? Recreate it. Change it. Destroy it. That power is in your hands." Terigan nodded, and disappeared inside the ball.

Recreate it. Change it. Destroy it. That simple? You can actually do anything you want with it? You could destroy the world...or become the ruler of it...

The second he left, he came back. "How come he wasn't in there but a second?" asked Nmi.

"I was in there for five days, what are you talking about!?" asked Terigan. Then he smiled.

"What did you do?" asked the man.

"I...never liked how I had such a superior as...." He paused, and chuckled.

"Zidane?" asked Nmi. He was concerned, not excited.

"Yes."

"You destroyed him?"

"No, but something almost as bad, if not worse." Nmi looked at him in question. "I made him write a letter to us a week from now, telling us to destroy Alexandria. That way, everyone will be after him, and he will eventually die."

They had done it, thought Zidane. They had destroyed Alexandria through me.

"You...did...remember to make him remember writing the letter?" The smile dropped from Terigan's face.

"Oops."
"...We can do it later. Meanwhile, I want you three over-" He pointed at three scientists, and his voice was turning to a mumble.

I still have the memory. They had forgotten to erase the memory.

BAKU WAS in his own realization. He was thinking, the whole time, about how Terigan and Nmi had actually done it themselves. But when the thought came around to his family, he could see them. Terigan, Nmi, and Aein, all floating through the emptiness. They couldn't see him.

"You understand it now?" asked Nmi.

"Yes," said Aein. "I've understood it for a long time."

"What do you mean?" asked Terigan.

Aein explained. "I was the one who showed it to you."

Terigan's mouth dropped. "You...you explained about the machine?"

"Yes. I did everything." Baku couldn't believe it. He turned to tell Zidane, and found himself on the floor of the bottom room. The only thing in the wide open area were metal, spiral stairs reaching up for a door high above him.

Then he found he had two memories, like Zidane had described. He remembered telling his son about Alexandria being destroyed. Tucking his two daughters into the bed. Coming in on the chocobos, Ptera and Candy, into Lindblum. Making his choice to go to Lindblum from the paths. But why was he remembering them in reverse order?

Then he had different memories:

THE LIGHT shone in his eyes as he opened the door. Lindblum was quieter than it had been. No one was outside except Zidane with his carriage and chocobos, which were bridled and attached to it. He walked over to Baku, and shook his hand heartily. Then they heard footsteps.

Dozens.

Hundreds.

Thousands.

He turned right, and saw troops from Lindblum marching towards their direction. The leader halted, and everyone behind him did so. He raised a hand, a trumpet played, and he began talking. "By order of Governors Terigan and Atrogghus Bersobin, you are under arrest. You will be taken to Alexandria during your captivity. Do not resist." A dozen soldiers arrested Baku and Zidane, then ran inside to take his family.

BAKU FELT himself lift off the floor, and was charged by a bright light.

He found himself in a courtroom...in Alexandria! The courtroom that was built very shortly after marriage, beside the theater. Around him were thousands of people, circling him. Beside him was Zidane Tribal, in chains, like Baku himself. His family was sitting at a table, which was guarded by at least ten guards. There was no escape.

"Zidane Tribal, accused of ten thousand, nine hundred and sixty two acts against the Alexandrian government. Major act is crime of self destruction, prevented ten years ago by the current rulers of Lindblum. How do you plead?"
Zidane looked around. "...This is rediculous."

"How do you plead!?" asked the man, sitting at a throne. Baku found him as very familiar...why?"

"...This is crazy! You people know yourselves that I wouldn't attack Alexandria! I was king!"

"See, sir?" asked a man, walking around them both. He had a short black beard, and was Baku's height. "The monkey pleads innocent, and at the same time, proves that he is mentally unstable." Zidane glared at him. "He lies about becoming king. When was this?" The people muttered, and Baku suddenly realized that he remembered Zidane, although being King, not being King. Terigan, Nmi, and Aein had changed something. Now everyone thought they both had given orders to destroy it, signed by their leader.

Alexandria had never been annihilated.

ZIDANE CONTINUED to watch as everything was being changed, right before his eyes. He saw Terigan, Nmi, and Aein making things happen. They would announce the things, and whatever they said would become true. "...Baku and Zidane will be arrested the day after they meet again," Nmi said. He could see the thousands of soldiers marching towards them both on the bright day.

"I can do better," said Terigan. He sighed, closed his eyes, and began to state something. "...We are the leaders of Lindblum." Zidane watched as they saw themselves being elevated to the Governors of the city."

"Or better yet, what if we existed at the same time we did, and we were the rulers of Lindblum right after Alexandria was destroyed? ...Make it so," ordered Nmi. Then they watched as the beautiful town of Lindblum changed into what it was now. From a stunningly glorious kingdom to a nasty, filthy, rough warzone-type area. That's how it became what it was, thought Zidane.

"Very good," said Terigan. "How about you, Aein? Something you wish to change?"
"No." Aein wasn't smiling, for some reason.

"Come on, you must have something you don't like. Something you wish for...eh?"

Aein thought for a second. "...What if I had been ruler of something since I was young?"

"You may if you wish," said Terigan, smiling broadly.

"...I am leader of..."

BAKU SAW something he hadn't noticed before. The man in the throne. Wasn't he a little shorter?...

"You are both proven guilty beyond reason," said the leader. "Take them away." Then Baku knew what was going on.

"...Hey...Hey, wait a minute! What am I guilty for!?" Then he remembered helping Zidane write the letter, and not.

They're doing this right now.

"No..." he said. He recognized the leader as the soldiers grabbed his arms. "...Aein! Let us go! No! We didn't do anything!!!" he shouted as loud as he possibly could, as the men drug them to the prison.

Aein was now the leader of Alexandria, which was never destroyed.

CONTINUED IN CHAPTER FIVE