Deliberate to forget it's painful past…
Though we hope for promising years,
After shedding a thousand tears,
Yesterday's sorrow constantly nears.
And while the moon still shine's blue,
By dawn, it will turn to scarlet hue."
-=Zidane=-
Can't this damned ship move any faster!?
I stand at the front of the Hilda Garde 2 and there is hardly a breeze blowing past. That's how it seems to my deadened sense, anyway. Vivi is somewhere behind me questioning the safety of flying.
"Sounds like it might crash at any minute." It occurs to me that that might not have been the most sensitive thing to say at the moment. Vivi's amber eyes widen in fear. Poor kid.
"Perhaps. But I think we can at least make it to Alexandria," Cid says, his small oglop body fidgeting. He casts a sympathetic glance at Vivi.
"Oh man… I guess we'd better cross our fingers," I say. Again, I suffer a relapse of foot-in-mouth-before-brain-in-gear syndrome. If Dagger were here, she'd have hit me by now.
But she isn't.
Dagger… I hope you're all right.
"Zidane… " Vivi says shakily. "I'm starting to feel sick…"
To my surprise, it is Amarant who speaks up and suggests that he go to the center of the ship, so as to escape the more violent rocking and movements of the ship.
Vivi is about to comply, but he stops and looks, wide-eyed, at Eiko. "Eiko?" he asks warily.
"What?"
He hesitates, then says, "I saw a sparkle."
We all focus our attention on the young girl, and sure enough, she is bathed in a gentle glow.
"Huh? Dagger…?" she calls out in confusion.
Until now, my mind has been on Dagger and Alexandria, but suddenly, I'm all ears. "Dagger!? Eiko, what's going on?"
She looks up at me, nearly as baffled as Vivi, and just as scared, and she says in a voice full of wonder, "I thought I just heard Dagger's voice."
As if on cue, the ship rattles and pitches violently, throwing us all off balance. Recovering, I angrily swear and say, " Jeez, something's wrong with this ship…" I look accusingly at Cid, who pretends not to hear my comment.
Ignoring my outburst, Eiko studies the glow emanating from her two jewels in fascination and says with a touch of excitement and a little fear, "This light… Maybe it's the holy judgement!"
"Holy judgement?" I echo, dropping all pretenses of anger in favor of curiosity.
She rushes to the bow of the ship, and for a moment I'm afraid that the night wind might pluck her tiny form right off the ship. "Hey, what are you doing!?" I ask in surprise.
She seems distracted now, as I was before, and answers a bit curtly. "The summoner is being called… Alexander's judgement has come!"
And with that brief statement, she forfeits herself to the wind's icy clutch. For a second, it seems as if she is half flying, half floating; she is just suspended there amongst the stars and smoke. And then she falls out of sight.
As I began breathing again, for I'd stopped when I'd seen Eiko go overboard, I am suddenly calm. My body sort of sags, as if the weight of Gaia has just been placed on my shoulders. Which it has, I realize, yet I still sigh in relief. Maybe Eiko can watch after Dagger…
I laugh at the thought. How ridiculous! A six year old protecting a sixteen year old! But I doubt that either of them fully understand the power that they possess collectively – the eidolons.
I relax into the eerie scene and my mind wanders again. Bahamut is torching the seemingly delicate kingdom of Alexandria and my mind is screaming at me to find and protect garnet, which I don't fully comprehend. I'm scared, which I could never admit to willingly.
Dagger… please be safe! I should never have gone to Treno. I should have said what was in my heart at our last meeting…
It might have truly been our last.
Hilda Garde 2 rushes to land, and all I can think is "Dagger."
-=Garnet=-
I sit in my bedroom after the coronation ceremony, and I am thinking only of Zidane. He'd hardly said a complete sentence to me. Is this how love is? Was it fate that brought us close and now leaves me behind?
Am I destined to live in solitude?
As I sit here and muse about the unfairness of it all, a dragon's war cry violates the still night air. I gasp and, shaken, I run to the balcony to take it all in…
There is a mighty dragon spiraling and ripping through the air, loosing blasts of fire indiscriminately like a deranged firefly. People are crowding the streets, hugging their loved ones close and always keeping the insane dragon in sight, should he choose to fire in their direction.
At some point Beatrix joins me and answers the question I already know the answer to: "That's Bahamut, isn't it…?" It is more of a statement than a question.
She answers that it is and informs me that the soldiers have already been assembled. There is a tone of sorrow and regret in her voice that she tries to mask with bravery. But I still notice.
I dispatch the Pluto Knights and watch fearfully as Steiner and Beatrix leave. "Everyone's gone… I don't know what to do…" I look up at the huge portrait of my mother and that awful gimmecat of hers, and tears sting to my eyes before I can even think of them. I brush them away, but there are more to take their predecessors' places. There are always more tears t be shed.
"Mother… I need your help."
I am suddenly swathed in a familiar blue light. I look at my hands and they are glowing as well. And then there is…
…darkness…
… … … … … …
… … … … … …
…-ere is light.
I awaken to the blaring lights of the castle. I do not know how long I have slept, but my first thought is of Zidane. There is still a battle raging outside; I can hear it.
My ear suddenly catches a haunting tune wafting through the deserted castle. I follow it blindly up the stairs, barely taking notice of the statues blocking my exit, like dutiful guards as I pass them.
This song seems so comforting…
I finally arrive outside. A new staircase rises up out of nowhere, but for some reason, I am not alarmed. Something is beckoning me forward…
… … …
I am finally at the very top and I look out over my kingdom, now in shambles and getting worse. There are those terrible mist monsters from the Iifa tree terrorizing the citizens down below.
I gasp and, just as suddenly as before, the light surrounds me. I look up and there Eiko, hovering like a little angel above me.
After a shocked, yet warm reunion and explanation, she says, "Dagger, this is the light of destiny."
"The light of destiny?" I reply, looking down at my pendant, dumbfounded.
She goes on to tell about the four jewels and the holy eidolon. She says we must summon him.
"But… I don't know what to do," I say worriedly.
She instructs me to kneel, and to take her hands… to pray in my heart.
"Oh holy guardian, hear our prayers.
Darkness overshadows us once again.
Oh holy guardian, hear our prayers.
Deliver us out of darkness into light."
This time we are both enveloped in light, which grows until it blinds me temporarily. I open one eye to see that there are two immense wings sprouting from behind the castle. They slowly close about us, and triumphantly sweep away Bahamut's angry blast. When they part, Alexander is towering over us. I know it is he in my soul.
He is beautiful.
I notice that far below us, the townspeople have all stopped in their tracks to take in this wondrous sight. I feel the same way. Alexander is truly an awesome entity to behold.
Zidane has left my mind. But only for a moment.
Before I realize what is happening, Alexander takes us into his wings once more, but his glory is interrupted. A beam from above encircles his entirety, and before my eyes, his angel's wings turn dirty brown and disintegrate, blowing away like the dust of an age-old corpse.
Eiko and I stand here, watching in horror and helplessness as our savior recoils from us in shock and pain.
As suddenly as the attack came, the balcony on which I am standing groans and gives way, throwing me to my knees. Eiko's eyes widen in fear, and she lunges for me, perhaps to grab my hand and pull me up. I gasp as a mountain of stone falls to prevent her rescue. She cries out and my heart stops, but I am relieved to still see little flashes over her deftly dodging the crumbling castle wall, and I heave a great sigh of relief.
But I have problems of my own.
It is too late for me to jump to safety – I have lost my chance. Alexandria Castle is tall – I will have plenty of time to reflect on my way down, for my life will surely end soon.
Tears creep into my eyes again, but this time I do not wipe them away. It is pointless to deny death.
This is it… the end.
I bow my head, shut my eyes tight, and pray. Suddenly, he is there… I can feel him here beside me. My eyes shoot open and he is in fact right here. I smile uncontrollably and launch myself into his awaiting arms. He grabs a string of colored banners, the same one Eiko is clinging to further up, and we are swept off the falling platform.
"I thought I was going to die!" I bury my face into his chest and I let a few sobs escape.
"It's okay," he says. "You'll be alright now." He smiles down at me and holds me tighter. I assume he does this so as to not drop me, but…
"Why did you come back to me?" I ask. A few rouge tears slide down my cheeks.
He pauses, and smiles again. We are still swinging on the rope. "You don't think about doing the right thing. If you're for the right thing, then you do it without thinking… I just knew."
Eiko is frowning down at us. I grin and tighten my hold on Zidane – a sort of mid-air hug.
I will not be alone, so long as I have him to live for.
[*Author's Note - The qoute in the end that Zidane says is from Maya Angelou's "I know Why the Caged Bird Sings." Thank you, Maya, for the use of your wonderful writing!]