Chapter 3
The rain was falling less heavily on the plains of Balamb now; the fight between the earth and the water seemed to have come to a draw. The majestic shape of the Ragnarok, descended through the clouds. Heading steadily toward Garden.
Squall sat in the copilot seat, more or less watching as Selphie skillfully maneuvered through the turbulent winds. He was preoccupied with thoughts of his own. Ellone yawned a bit; it has been the middle of the night when she was awakened by Squall's phone call. He had explained her the situation, and, by Hyne, she hadn't seen him this serious since the Sorceress War.
Ellone sighed and closed her eyes, she was willing to help her little brother, and if her talent would show the truth about the murder of the Cadets, and help Zell to get healthy again, then she wouldn't hesitate a moment to do it.
The Ragnarok made a majestic turn, and landed gently on the usual spot in front of Garden, Irvine was already waiting for them with a car.
Quistis was standing guard in the detention area of Garden, after hearing Squall's description of their fight. She was happy for the energy field that kept the stranger in his cell. The man had stood up earlier not giving her as much as a look and had searched the cell for weaknesses, as he touched the field, he had received a shock, that should have made him helpless for a few minutes, without even flinching.
She watched him as he stood in his cell, emotionless, eyes open, breathing deeply, not making a movement. He was a handsome man, looking around the age of 30, tall, and well built. His face might have been beautiful, if is wasn't for his eyes, The eyes of a predator, Quistis thought. Something in them told the world that it was just a small furry animal, nothing more than a toy at best, or prey at worst.
"Are you happy with what you see?" the man suddenly addressed her. Quistis felt a slight blush rising up her cheeks. It wasn't polite to stare, not even at a prisoner.
"Sorry I didn't want to be impolite," she answered and looked away, then to her great relief the door opened and Squall and Ellone came in.
Quistis nodded to Ellone, while Squall stood in front of the man and told him to sit down, which the man did without arguing. Ellone gave her a quick smile, sat down on a comfy chair, and entered the mind of the mysterious man.
Something was different this time, Ellone immediately knew, instead of being able to go through his memories and feelings, she was surrounded by a gray mist, unable to see or hear. Her heart cramped a little, was this a mind that was broken? Would she be able to find her way out again?
Her mental-self started running, panicked, to no avail she looked around, close to tears, nothing to see except the gray mist. She fell to her knees, shaking in fear, but suddenly something began to pull her through the fog like a leaf in a storm.
Ellone felt herself kneeling on a semi-hard floor; she opened her eyes and looked. She knelt in what looked like a tundra, a few spare patches of grass were to be seen poking out between the snow and ice that surrounded her in the vast landscape. She calmed down a little. Rising to her feet, she turned around.
A man stood behind her, clothed in a suit of splendid armor of ancient design, a mighty broadsword slung to his hip. It was the same man she had seen in the cell Elle realized. Somehow she met him here, in his own mind. The man stepped forward, gripping her wrists tightly, but not hurting her.
"A young girl with the ability to sneak into the minds of people uninvited," he said in a matter-of-fact tone. "I bet its fun, knowing your opposite, isn't it? Taking a peek into the minds of others, mostly for what you consider a good cause, sometimes for your own enjoyment." The man looked her straight into the eyes, unblinking.
Ellone wanted to say something to him, but she couldn't. His silent tone scared her more than she ever thought possible. "Know that in my time, what you do was considered a crime, and to one as high born as myself, a deadly sin, that would enable me to do anything with you that I wanted. And know also that you body here is a mirror of your physical body, so what happens to you here becomes real."
His words send shivers of fear down Ellone spine, she struggled against his grip, just wanting to escape, suddenly the man let her go and she felt down to the ground again, lying on her back.
The man knelt down beside her, and she tried to crawl away, but he took her softly, but firmly, by the shoulder, and looked into her eyes again. He gave her a small smile, which reached his eyes, softening his entire face. "Have no fear," he said, "I do not intend to hurt you, and I never force myself upon a woman that did not wish me to. I just told you that, so you could maybe begin to understand."
Ellone felt the grip of fear around her heart lessening, but not vanishing completely. He stood up, smiling again, than he offered her a hand. Ellone hesitated for a moment and then took it.
Ellone sat down on a tree trunk shivering from the cold, now that most of her fear had left her. Without saying a word the man laid his cloak around her shoulders, and started to build a fire.
"Thank you…" said Ellone, still unsure about the stranger.
"Khan is appropriate." Came the reply. "You are a sibling to the young lion, aren't you?" he asked. "He asked you to use your special talent on me to find out the truth, or at least something quite close to it." Ellone just nodded, twice, staring at Khan in fascination. Khan started the fire with a flick of his hand, fire burning in his eyes as he did so.
"Sorceress magic," whispered Ellone under her breath.
"No, but something closely related," Khan answered as he sat down, facing her. "Of course you now have realized that I could show you whatever in my mind I want to show you, letting you see the version of truth that fits me the best," Khan said to her, Ellone only nodded.
"So, what? Are you talking of proving your innocence in the slaughter of the cadets, and your attack on my family and friends?" she replied.
Khan laughed silently. "Prove?" he asked "I can give you no proof, look around you, it seems to be real, doesn't it? Well real enough at least. Remember all you see may just be a dream within a dream." He looked at her and smiled again, Ellone felt unsure of what to say or to do. "All I can offer you," Khan said again, "Is a chance for understanding, or if you want, my version of the story." He fell silent for a while, but when Ellone tried to speak he said, "But I warn you, what I will show you won't be pleasurable for the most part, if you don't possess the strengths and fortitude it will destroy you like the Void I drew you from."
Ellone shuddered; she remembered too clearly the fear she had felt in the gray mist. After a while she said, "I am ready, how will you begin?" the man grinned, but there was no humor in it.
"At the very beginning of course…"
Warmth…
Silence…
Peace…
Floating…
Ellone was floating though a mix of emotions, all feelings were good, she felt protected…
Warmth…
Peace…
Protection…
Silence… No wait, there was a noise, so soft that it wasn't really audible…
Peace…
Warmth…
The noise was a kind of pumping… incredibly soothing, and showering her with affection…
Warmth…
Protection…
Peace…
Floating…
This must be the feeling a baby has in its mother's womb, Ellone thought dreamily…
Warmth…
Floating…
…A baby in a mother's womb… Suddenly Ellone realized what she just had thought, "Oh Hyne, this cannot be, he cannot remember that! Being in his mothers womb…"
Peace…
Protection…
Suddenly she felt a violent movement, she was pulled out of this atmosphere of peace and protection. She felt herself landing on something hard, feeling pain for the first time in her life. Bright light, noise, movement all around. She felt herself trying to protect her senses from this. She cough up a lot of fluid, her lungs seemed to be full of it.
Breathing heavily she stood up and looked around her. Everything was strange, hostile, Ellone's mind started working again, she recognized walls, some strange devices hanging from them, and finally a kind of steel casket hanging from the ceiling by a net of steel wires, wide open, and still wet, a strange fluid dripping out of it. She felt that her body, no, the body of a man was covered in the same fluid.
She looked down at herself, himself she corrected. It was the body of a full-grown man, well muscled and completely naked. He was covered completely in the strange fluid.
She was just flexing her fingers and muscles for what felt like the first time, It is the first time, she thought as she heard a low growl. She turned and saw that a door in one of the walls had just opened, and a wendigo was looking straight at her. Ellone would have feared, but in the mind she occupied, the ferocious monster before her just managed to wake a kind of rage.
The wendigo charged and tackled her, throwing her against a wall, she saw a clawed paw swinging in her direction and wanted to pull her hands up in a defensive gesture. Instead she felt herself ducking under the swing and landing a hit herself with her elbow in the midsection of the monster, all on pure instinct. The wendigo took a step back, being thrown off guard.
Ellone spun around, and swept the legs of the monster away under its body with a bone crushing kick. Without hesitating she leapt onto the back of the thing, grabbed the neck of it, setting her knee on its back and started pulling.
Time seemed to freeze, no it lost its meaning entirely, all that mattered now was her deadly grip on her opponent. The wendigo screamed, first in anger, then in pain, its movements grew weaker and weaker, till she heard the neck of the creature break, and an incredible satisfaction swept over her…
Quistis sat down, looking at Ellone, her face was uneasy, twitching, she had gone through all kinds of emotions in the last hours. Squall was sitting next to Ellone, holding the hand of his sister and whispering comforting words to her. Quistis knew that he was very concerned for the security of his sister, she had been gone for almost six hours now, no trip into the "Dream World" had ever taken this much time. Ellone smiled suddenly, a feeling of peace lied on her face.
Suddenly her expression changed, it was confused, then afraid, finally angry. Tear ran down her cheeks and her body seemed to stand under an enormous stress, every muscle seemed to contract. Beads of sweat formed on her forehead. Wordlessly Quistis gave Squall a damp towel. He wiped the tears and sweat from Ellone's face. "Sis, what have I done to you?" he whispered, still holding her hand.
Quistis took the towel back as quietly as she had given it; she too was deeply concerned about Ellone. Never before she had seen an emotion on her face while in the "Dream World," but this time she seemed to be stressed nearly to death.
Squall looked at the floor. "Oh Sis, I hope you are okay, wherever you are now. Please forgive me for what I have done to you…"
Ellone opened her eyes again, she was back in her own body, feeling parched. Khan sat next to her, holding her in a sitting position, he grabbed a wooden bowl, and held it to her lips. She drank the fluid, it was pure spring water, but it tasted to her like the best wine she had ever drank.
He refilled the bowl from a flask, and gave it to her again, she drank, feeling already strong enough to sit upright and hold the bowl again. Khan moved back to his old seat, the fire burning and sending a nice warmth into their direction. He looked at her waiting patiently for her to speak.
"That was your…" Ellone hesitated, then spoke again. "Your birth, wasn't it?" Khan nodded.
"The very first thing I remember."
"It was…" Ellone couldn't find the right words, "It was shocking…" Her voice silenced again.
"Let's call it a very important step to understanding," Khan said. "I am what we called an 'Unborn', a creature not human, but looking human. Made by a sorcerer to be his bodyguard, his assassin, and his slave." He took a deep breath before he went on. "You saw it through my own eyes, I was thrown into this world, and the first thing I did was fight and kill. I could show you more, my training, the wars I fought in, the people I killed, but that is pointless. I think you know now what ecstasy the act of killing brought me." Ellone just nodded; still she trembled at the thought of the joy she'd had as the wendigo's neck broke.
Khan spoke again, "But there is more. The man who made me, my Father, wanted me to be more than just a mindless killer, he spent ages teaching me philosophy and morals. Many a time he was awake with me till deep in the night, talking to me, reciting a great poem," Khan fell silent for a moment. "Or we would visit some place, sometimes the grand theatres, sometimes a smoky tavern in the middle of the Thief's Quarters, but I always learned something about the nature of humans on our trips."
He looked lost for a moment in his memories, Ellone said nothing she knew when it was better to let someone sort out his thoughts alone. The ability to see a person's mind had given her a deep empathy about people.
He looked up to her again and spoke. "The whole situation you and your friends are in started many years later, as my Father, thrilled by the knowledge he had discovered, then decided to make another like me, my brother. My Father tried to instill the moral virtues I only received through a long and hard learning process into him at birth. He failed horribly. I will show you know how the whole affair started, I will try to make the memory less personal, and so you won't suffer this time…"
Ellone felt the scene changing, this time she saw the world not through the eyes of Khan, but in a kind of third person view.
The night moon looked down on the sleepy streets on Enkuar, the capital of the great nation of Centra. Only a few people bustled through the streets, most of them preoccupied with their own illicit business. No one took any notice of the 6-foot tall man who walked down the street to the Council Building. Not even the most ambitious of thugs and crooks tried anything; something about the figure was scary. The fear was not entirely unfounded, with the well-muscled appearance, or the worn handle of the broadsword that hung from the belt of the man, but there was something in his moves that suggested that there were much easier ways to earn money, like wrestling Ruby Dragons.
A hundred human-sized torches lit the Great Hall of the Council. The Council, consisting of the 61 greatest magic users of the Empire, were holding a trial. In the middle of the semicircle stood an old man wearing jewelled robes. He had the look of a man who had seen into his own private Hell and knows that he has to spend an eternity in there. He spoke to them slowly, in a tired voice:
"…And this my fellow Guild members, and friends, is the whole terrible truth of an old fool, who tried to unwrap the secrets of creation itself and just managed to bring evil, evil in the purest sense, into this, our world." He fell silent.
The armed man reached the gate of the Great Council Building, one of the guards stood in his way.
"State your business," he ordered, his voice trembling with fear. The armed man looked at him, seeming to decide if to answer the question or just kill the imbecile. "Warlord Ranthor, the Khan of Trabinatuar and Slayer of the Dragon of Esturah. I am here to speak on the behalf of my maker, Lordmagician Duanon Tres Trekel, leader of the Holy Council of Sorcery." The Guard stood aside.
"You may pass of course, the council is debating." The man walked into the building without a further look to the guard.
The council was silent, they all were shocked about the news he had given them, but at the same time they were exited about the incredible new ways Lord Trekel's brilliant mind had opened up. He, the undisputed greatest thinker of them all, had a mind so sharp that even he had cut himself this time. Finally the Sorceress Anea spoke, "This is a critical situation, Lords and Ladies, and we cannot allow Duanon's last creation to roam the Land…"
The man who addressed himself as Ranthor walked through the Council Building, everyone who met him stood aside, even the lesser Lord magicians, his temper was feared, and everyone knew that the only person he respected, the only person he feared, the only person he loved, was on trial. He reached the Outer Council Chambers, and again, a guard stood in his way. This time a young sword master called Berinar, who towered over Ranthor by nearly a foot, and outweighed him by 70 pounds.
"No one may enter the chambers, especially not you, son of the criminal." Not a muscle twitched in Ranthors face.
"… And so fellow masters of the Art, the question remains: who can possible stop a thing as mighty, as ruthless, as terrible as Ranthors second child?" Again, silence filled the chamber, as not one of the Lord and Ladies could give a satisfying answer.
"I can" boomed a voice through the Halls. Ranthor stood before the council, his cape slung back, showing his well-muscled arms and chest, where there was a tattoo of a tiger.
"How could you pass Berinar, the greatest of my constructs?" asked Manarus, a middle-aged Sorcerer with a cruel face. Ranthor held up his right hand, it was blood smeared, and was clutching a still-beating heart. He let the shock sink in for a moment, and then devoured the heart whole.
A stunned silence had befallen the Council. Everyone knew of the brutality and ruthlessness of Ranthor, mixed with his sharp mind and his natural instincts for battle; this made out his usefulness as a Warlord, but at a moment like this everyone was reminded of the fact that the man in front of them was one of the unborn. Probably the greatest that had ever had roamed this land. He was an unmatched warrior, and a mage of great power, very nearly matching their own power. The only way to kill an unborn was the way he just had so impressively showed to them. To rip their still-beating hearts out of their chests and to devour them.
Ranthor began to speak; "I don't hear any objections to my pledge. I swear to the mighty Hyne to make up for the sins of my father, for I am darkness and light, my feet touch the ground, my head tastes the sky. No virgin is so pure, no priest so holy and no warrior so fierce that they wouldn't tremble in my presence. Look at me before me you are as nothing. I will destroy my sibling, or if that is not possible, I will guard him to the end of time." With the recitation of this ancient, sacred oath he turned and left the hall.
Rinoa silently entered the room; she was carrying a tray of food. Quistis rose and walked towards the door, as the women passed each other they exchanged short, silent smiles. Quistis left and Rinoa sat next to Squall, putting the tray down in front of him.
"I brought you something to eat, Squall," she said, smiling at him. He nodded, never taking his eyes from his sister. The figure of Ellone had calmed down now, but still showed no signs of waking up.
"Squall, you must eat" Rinoa said again. This time he looked shortly at her, giving her a small smile and looked at the tray, he took a slice of bread from it, and looked back at Ellone.
Several minutes passed, Squall still held the bread in his hand. Finally Rinoa said, "Bread, in your hand, remember? You should eat." He looked at her again, taking a bite from the bread and reaching for the soup that had already grown cold on the tray. He took a few spoonful's of it and ate some more of the bread, never looking away from Ellone for long. Then he shoved the tray away from him, smiling apologetically at Rinoa.
"I am not hungry," he said. Rinoa sighed but didn't reply, he was already looking at Ellone again. Rinoa looked around at Khan, his body hadn't moved for the last couple of hours, never making any kind of response to whatever it was that he was feeling.
Ellone opened her eyes again, this time she wasn't feeling drained by the experience. Khan sat in his usual spot, looking at her in silence.
"What are you wanting to show me?" she asked "what does this have to do with the dead SeeDs and your attack on my brother and my friends?"
"Everything," replied Khan. "This was just the beginning of my story, there is still more to come. After I took the sacred oath, I hunted down my escaped sibling, who committed many cruel crimes in his path. Being immortal and as strong as myself, no one in his path had a chance to stop him."
Ellone shuddered as she remembered the only way one of the "unborn" could be killed; she silently thanked Hyne that she didn't had to feel it firsthand.
"Finally," Khan continued: "I was able to track him in Protera, the capital of my own province, Trabinatur, where I thought I could force him into a final confrontation."
Zell looked up as Selphie entered the room, she smiled at him. Sitting down on his bed, which sends waves of pain through his body, she touched his hand gently.
"Nothing to fear anymore," she said smiling. "Ellone is here, she will go into the mind of the madman, and then we will know the truth, and, hopefully, how to cure you." Selphie gave him a bright smile. "You will up again, eating hotdogs and working out in no time."
Zell felt himself smile, and his voice said, "Oh the doctor wants something…" Selphie turned around to see what he meant.
"I must check out the medical supplies in the storerooms, can you look after my desk while I am gone?" the older woman asked her.
"Of course," replied Selphie smiling, she wanted to stay anyway to cheer Zell up a bit. Selphie looked after Doctor Kadowaki as she left the room. Behind her, Zell grabbed for the bottle on the night desk.
A/N: My greatest thanks go to Rhyein for patiently proofing this and helping me with useful critic while writing this.
