Chapter Nine
Dive
"Welcome," Esuna's musical (and sickeningly smug) voice rang out clearly though the depths of the rain, "to Hell."
"Funny," Garnet said in mock puzzlement, "I thought this place was called Burmecia."
Eiko jabbed her in the ribs.
"Esuna." Clover's voice spoke the name without hesitation, and more than a little confusion. "What do you want?" It was a rhetorical question.
"What I want. . .is what you have. Give him to me."
"He is not mine to give."
"Oh?" Esuna said nastily, wondering when the time would be just right to strike Clover down, and take him from her. . .to be Esuna's own. She had longed for him, since the dawn of time. . .soon, she would not be able to bear it.
"He is his own."
"Yes, but he is yours as well. Perhaps, he is his own completely. But I don't think so. Back off!" she snapped as Eiko tried to sneak a Holy on Esuna.
"Eiko," Clover said slowly. "Kuja, Garnet, Zidane, Mikoto. Please, leave. This is my fight."
"Are you mad?" Kuja cried, rushing over to Clover and gripping her shoulders painfully.
Clover closed her eyes. "Go," she whispered. "I will always love you."
"What the hell does that mean?!" Kuja said angrily, his grip tightening.
"Please," Clover all but whimpered. She knew what she had to do. The stars had told her, and one did not mess with fate, or fate would come back to bite one in the butt.
Kuja lowered his eyes, feigning resign, and left, but he was close. Always so close. Clover turned to Esuna.
"Let the games begin," she declared.
Esuna launched herself at Clover, and she deftly dodged, sending Esuna past her. She silently blessed her speed, but Esuna wasted no time getting to the point. She gathered a ball of energy in her hands.
"Do you enjoy dying, giving Kuja to me?" she cried happily, and launched the ball at clover, at the same time, in sync with the energy's growth, she cried, "Ultimate End!"
"Clover!" was all she heard, until she thought she was hit, but wasn't completely. Kuja had taken most of it (Geez, I'm getting sappy) and it had rebounded back on Esuna. All three swam in their emotions, until darkness hit them. Esuna wondered what would become of her.
She groaned. So did Kuja, and Esuna. They woke. . .in the middle of a park near Clover's house in Seattle.
"Earth?!" Clover cried, her hands raised to her mouth.
"Guess Ultimate End is a transportation spell," Kuja said slowly.
Esuna let out a shriek and lunged for Kuja, Clover's rapier in her hand. He tried to dodge, but she was too fast. It slid cleanly through him, and his eyes widened. He was vaguely aware of Clover screaming his name and Esuna's lips locked on his, whispering against his mouth, "You're mine. . .I have you now. . ."
He sighed and closed his eyes.
Esuna easily took the rapier of darkness from Kuja's limp body, but Clover didn't see her. Her vision blurred, and a sorrow beyond eternity welled inside of her, overflowing her soul. She couldn't take it. She screamed, a wail that split the air like a banshee's wail could have, a sound of song in silence and a void so deep that nothing could fill the gap. Her engagement ring glowed with a fiery power of her despair, and her eyes dulled. She stone seemed to grow, and Clover had a new magic within her. She suddenly didn't care what happened, as long as she died with him. And the only way to do that. . .she began to sing, with the new and strange euphoria that elated her at the thought of dying with him.
(Lyrics from The Dream Within, from the Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within Soundtrack)
"Be. . . the dream within
The stars are crying
A tear. . . A sigh
Escapes from heaven. . .
. . .And world's end."
She didn't know what kind of power filled her, only that she was dying. And, from far away, on Gaia, Zidane, Garnet, Eiko, and Mikoto, the only family that either Clover or Kuja had, watched in pain and utter agony as a distant planet, far off in space, exploded.
The super nova lasted longer than anyone could have imagined. It would never go away for eons to come. And awash with light, illuminated within that light, were two spheres of light, ever drifting to a planet of rebirth, so that maybe they could be together again.
Maybe. . .
One distant day. . .