Sins of the Father Secrets Revealed


Chapter 4

Pain flooded through Selphie's head as she hit the ground; the back of her head seemed to be on fire. She hit the ground hard, unable to stop herself with her hands. She felt the sharp pain as her nose broke at the impact. Selphie was pulled back to her feet, still unable to move her hands. Zell hit her again, this time with his fist, in the stomach. She coughed in pain and was thrown against a wall.

Selphie felt the warm blood poured down her face, she was dizzy, but the long years of training finally took over. She managed to block Zell's next attack and kicked high in retaliation, hitting his cheek. Zell stumbled back a step, touching the small cut he got on his cheek.

"How dare you!?" he hissed, with pure hatred in his voice. Selphie threw herself forward trying to use a disabling blow on his throat before he could finish her, but this time she didn't had the element of surprise on her side.

Zell grabbed her hand out of the air with childlike ease, bringing his foot up at the same time, smashing her head in a mirrored version of the kick she had given him. Her head seemed to explode again, her eye was swollen shut immediately, and she was once again fighting for her consciousness. Zell hit her again with his fist, sending her crashing against the bed. Selphie tried to get up by grabbing onto the rail of the bed, but with a cruel smile on his face Zell kicked brutally against her wrist, breaking the bones like twigs.

Selphie was lying there, only half-conscious, this had to be a bad dream. Zell would never hurt her this way, it had to be a bad dream she told herself over and over again. The sharp sound of stressed metal ready to break was heard, then Selphie felt herself pulled up by her hair, feeling strangely detached from the world. With her uninjured eye she saw Zell in front of her, clutching a 3 feet long pole of metal in his other hand.

"This is your reward for bringing my beloved brother to me," Zell hissed, his voice filled with hate, and thrust the metal pole forward, pinning the petite girl to the wall. Selphie smiled, she felt no pain, this was just some stupid nightmare, Zell was her friend, he saved her live many times during the sorceress war. This was just a stupid nightmare…


Ellone felt herself once again floating over a nightly city, this time it was covered in snow. She saw Khan, now clothed in warm furs, walk into the direction a half-open building. A figure clothed in rags muttered something to him, he turned, answered it, and handed the figure something, and it scurried away.

As Khan entered the building, Ellone's view changed, she was looking into the room and the smells of spices and human bodies embraced her. The building was part bazaar, part taverns and part open forum. Some enormous coal fires heated the place.

Khan walked up to one of the tables, again prowling the place like a predator on its own turf. A single person sat near it, clothed in a wide coat the face covered by a hood. The person seemed to have the respect of the people there too, not one of the gathered thieves, thugs, crooks and general half-lives bothered it.

Khan sat down, facing the person only partially, one of the waitresses wearing only several feet of cloth slung around her walked up and silently gave them two cups and a skin full of wine. She left them rather hurriedly, as if she was lucky to get away. After a while, Khan filled both cups and drank from one of them. A few more minutes passed, and then finally the figure spoke.

"How are the profits?" it asked.

"Going as always," Khan replied, without taking his eyes from the dancers on a small stage nearby.

"Good thing to hear," came the reply.

"Yes, indeed, how is your own illicit business going?" Khan suddenly said. Both of them seemed to follow an invisible script.

This went on for a while, when finally Khan said in a different tone.

"Where is he?" The figure looked at him, for the first time.

"I will show you, but you know the price."

"No, not this time, you will tell me where he is, he is far to dangerous!" Khan snarled. The person turned to him throwing the hood back.

"I am no damsel in distress you have to protect, I can take care of myself," she snarled back. It the face of a woman, aged in her mid-twenties, some strands of blonde hair hanging down in her face. Her eyes were an icy blue, seeming to stare directly into the soul of a being. The face was not exactly beautiful, her nose had been broken and not healed correctly, and a scar ran down her left cheek to her throat, but it was bustling with life, and gave the striking impression of personality.

"I know," Khan's voice was just a growl now. "But this time it is too dangerous. I will face him on my own."

"Not yours to decide," she said, in the same dangerous tone of voice. Khan breathed in deeply.

"I could just take the information I want," he said a matter-of-factly.

"Yes you could," the woman answered, nodding "You could break my mind like a matchstick, leaving me mentally raped and beaten…" A painful silence descended. The woman finally broke it. "But you wouldn't, I know you can see right from wrong and you won't do wrong because of it." Khan just nodded. With a smile the woman continued. "And still, you have to pay the price for my services." Khan smiled back and stood up in silence. As they both walked to the exit the woman suddenly threw her arms around Khan and hugged him deeply. "I have missed you dearly…"


Squall had fallen asleep next to his sister; Rinoa smiled at him and pulled a blanket over them both. Ellone had been gone for almost 24 hours now, and Squall hadn't slept for at least 60 hours, ever since the stranger had come into Garden. Her eyes moved to the stranger, he hadn't moved all the time, he didn't even looked asleep, more like he was waiting to burst into action at any moment.

Rinoa shuddered as she remembered how they had brought him into the cell, the heavy wound on his chest had begun to heal up quickly, and he had awoken minutes after the force field had been turned on. She shuddered a bit at the memory; he just sat up, as if nothing had happened and looked around, then he searched the cell, never making a noise, not even as he touched the force field. Rinoa sighed silently and looked back at the siblings.

"Ellone, " she whispered. "Wherever you are now, I hope you are all right."


Ellone woke up again, the sun of the strange landscape was already setting, she looked to Khan and for the first time something like an emotion showed up on his face; a strange look of loss and sadness was lying in his mind. Ellone felt that this was her time to speak.

"She was your…" she hesitated.

"A very good friend," Khan closed for her. Ellone hesitated again, the she rallied herself and decided to take this risk.

"She was more than that, you loved her!" she said with a strength in her voice that she didn't really feel. Khan jumped up, he snorted and turned to the fire. He knelt before it and shoved his hand directly into the flames. The smell of burning flesh filled the air, sickening Ellone. Khan turned around again holding up his scorched hand that already began to heal.

"Love," he snorted. "What do I know about Love? Look at my hand, I am not human, I am an unborn, I do not know about Love…" Silence filled the place.

"But yes, you could say I loved her, if I was able to feel Love, that would be the feeling I had for her. I met her when she was 17, she was already an accomplished thief, but she was too careless and ambitious. She didn't heed the warnings of the older thieves and broke into my palace. She even tried to steal some of my personal jewelry, stored in my bedroom." He chuckled slightly at the memory. "I could see the fire of ambition burning in her, unquenchable, even by the hardships she had already endured in her young life, so I became her mentor, and later her lover."

He held up his hand again, it was unhurt again. "See?" he told Ellone. "I am not Human I only look like it. I am out of Death's reach forever, the only thing that can kill me… well you already know that."

Ellone nodded, she was thrilled by the story the stranger told her, a strange fascination had gripped her. She craved to hear the rest of it, even if she was aware that the whole thing was just his point of view, and had until now had cleared nothing to do with the current events.


Zell cringed as he looked at the beaten figure of Selphie on the wall; he couldn't believe what he had just done. The hope he had felt as she told him about Ellone had turned into icy horror; he must have gone insane. She was one of his closest friends, if not the closest; she had saved his life many times.

Zell felt hot tears run down his cheeks; the guilt over what he had done was overpowering. He wanted to hide himself from the world, more, he wanted to go back to Selphie and help her; undoing the damage he had done, but he couldn't. He couldn't move even a single muscle in his body, the only thing he was being able to do was let the tears run down his face, burning guiltily, like acid.

He felt himself moving to the desk, he saw himself check the medical database of Dr. Kadowaki, and find a picture of Ellone. His face twisted into a cruel grin and he searched some of the chemical/biological databases of the Garden Network, nodding in grim satisfaction. He walked to a wall climbing it and pulled himself into the airshaft.


The scene changed for Ellone, she felt a bit dizzy, and then she realized she was looking to a bedroom. It was barely lit by an enormous fireplace in the wall. Luxurious tapestries hung from the wall, and the floors were covered with animal skins. She saw Khan, he was just pulling his shirt over his head to get dressed again, and then she saw the silhouette of the woman. She was lying in the bed, her naked body covered only partially by the sheets. Khan got his weapons from the pile of clothes on the floor. He went to the door, but turned back to the woman on the bed again, whispering silently.

"I know you will hate me for that in the morning, but I had too I will rather have you alive and hating me than have the knowledge that your blood is on my hands." He looked at the figure for a moment longer and left. As soon as the sound of his steps was gone in the distance the woman suddenly got up, walking naked over to the pile of clothes, as she started to dress, and chuckled in silence.

"Oh Ranthor, your vice, maybe your only vice is that you know too much about people, and tend to forget that other people know a thing or two about people also." She pulled up her trousers and continued. "Trying to give me a sleeping potion, you really should have known that I will never fall for that, I know you far too well. I knew the look on your face and I knew what you were planning since we left the tavern." She put on her shirt and grabbed her boots.

"So I played along with your game, telling you where to find your enemy, why not? No harm in that, you would never have let me come with you, so I will follow." She grabbed her weapons-belt and moved back to the bed. She pulled a cup out from behind it and poured it into the great fire. She turned to leave, but was intending to use the window. "Oh Ranthor, I know you are the biggest, baddest, scariest SoB in this part of the world, maybe in the whole world, but you told me that your brother was as powerful as you, and completely ruthless. So you will need some help on this. I love you, I would die lucky if I could give my life for you." She slid out of the window and the room fell silent.


Calash climbed through the air shaft, tears still running down the face of his vessel. He was furious, but he couldn't stop it. The puny mortal was far more powerful then he had ever imagined possible, his mind had remained there all the time, fighting his own for the control over the body.

He had spent the last 6 weeks just fighting for the control of this body, to almost no avail. The thing that had possessed it before, the mind and soul of his vessel just refused to be destroyed, and now his brother had come to here. He wasn't ready to fight him yet, not in this body; the resisting mind just cost him too much power to face Khan.

He chuckled lightly as he remembered that the pathetic friends of his body had saved him. Killing them would be really fun, or maybe just crippling them, like that girl… that had been fun. She had to live in a crippled body for the rest of her pathetic life, not that it would be very long. When he finally managed to get rid of the resisting mind he would make sure that only the worthy survived.

Calash grinned to himself, what a magical age this was. The wonders of technology, as they called it, it would make everything so much easier this time. Only after a brief search, he had found the information on where to look for the ingredients needed to brew the godly potion that would separate the congregation. The mystical brew that enabled him to divide those that are worthy to live and those that should die, the same that he used in Protera.

Calash slid out of the airshaft into the bedroom of his host-body, here he could find what he was looking for, and the keys to the weapons he would need to accomplish his plan.


Ellone woke up slowly; she was being shaken softly by the shoulders. She opened her eyes and saw Khan's face, looking worriedly at her. She nodded to him.

"I am ok." He still looked concerned.

"You were gone for much longer now, are you sure you are all right? You have no training in this, only a wild talent, so it could be too much for your mind to take." She smiled at him.

"Thanks for your concern, but I am ok." Suddenly she saw a third figure, standing behind Khan. It was the woman from the visions; she smiled benevolently at Ellone and winked.

"He doesn't know that I am here, I thought you should see the whole story to really understand him. He is a tortured creature, and has never forgiven himself." She smiled again. "You will understand it when you know the whole story, fear him not, he means no harm to you." With that, the woman vanished. Khan looked around trying to see what Ellone looked at, he turned back to her, looking even more concerned.

"Are you sure you are okay? I will send you back into your body, its better for you, you will need your rest." Ellone shook her head.

"No, I am ok, please show me the rest of your story, I will need to know."

Khan looked at her again with great concern; then he spoke. "That morning I found my brother in a cavern not too far from the city. There, I discovered his dark schemes and thought I could confront him, to end his threat to the world once and for all."

Ellone felt sleepy again…


Ellone felt herself entering a cavern, trailing behind the lumbering shape of Khan. He had his broadsword drawn and looked even more determined than ever. The caverns were lit by green Sorcerer's Light. Khan walked through the corridors and reached a large room.

The room was filled with a mixture of alchemical equipment and tools of torture. Some mutilated bodies hung from the ceiling, but there was no sign of Calash. One of the figures moaned in pain, Kahn looked at it and saw that the wounds were beyond help, there was just too much damage done. Even magic couldn't bring the person back. With a quick swing of his sword, Khan freed the poor creature from its misery.

"You are always so kind hearted to these animals, my dear brother." Calash's voice sounded from behind him. Khan turned around slowly and looked at his brother. The figure stood about 6 feet and 1 inch tall, slightly taller than himself, and showed the same well-muscled appearance. Their faces were mirror images of each other, but it was a fractured mirror image in Calash's case, something beautiful and brilliant, but ultimately broken.

"These creatures, no, I will not even call them animals, because they are much lower, this things, they are nothing. What is your interest in them? We are created to rule them. Our father, the greatest Sorcerer of all time, greater than anyone else in this age, created us to rule. You and me, we will sort out the weak, the slow, the sick and the unable. We will create beings from our image that are worthy to live in this, our world."

Khan just shook his head. "You never learned, brother. Our father made a critical mistake; you cannot instill wisdom and understanding into someone like he did with our skills at battle. You never learned, you don't see the fine distinctions in human life, your poor tortured mind cannot take hold of the brilliant structure of the human nature."

Calash's Face turned into a visage of rage. "Fine brother, let's have it your way, I will slay you then, for the crime of defying your destiny." He made a sudden gesture with his hand; a magical circle that had been hidden under the blood of the victims flared brightly, imprisoning Khan. "Oh dear brother, I know you are powerful enough to come out of the circle, but first it will give me time to finish my destiny; and second, much more importantly, you will not make it out in time to be able to escape the wrath of my new ally."

As the shape of an elder demon came into view, Calash went into a fit of maniacal laughter.


Calash arrived in the airshaft above the weapon chambers, he knows what he was after, and the weapons-maker of this age had built so many funny weapons of destruction. He had just stopped at the room of his host body to gather the needed access-card and a bag to transport the weapons in.

He slid into the room and looked with delight over the assembled tools of death and destruction. After a short while he had found what he looked for. He packed the bag he was carrying with a wide assortment of arms and ammunition. Then he added some more field equipment and finally explosives. With a cruel smile, he climbed up to the airshaft again. Time to look after this Ellone woman.


The demon walked towards Khan, grinning slightly, the figure was beautiful, over 7 feet tall, lean and well muscled, the face of a fallen angel. It had feathered wings on its back. The slender, delicate fingers were holding a sleek dagger. It walked up to Khan, ready to devour the heart of the unborn.

Khan concentrated, he knew that he could beat the demon, but not while trapped in here. He fought with all his might, and managed to gain a little control of his arms again. The demon drew closer and raised the dagger. Khan knew that he was lost; he would never manage to break the spell of his brother quickly enough. The demon grinned and brought the dagger down, to slice his chest open.

The blade never reached him, the demon wailed in pain and rage as a throwing dagger stuck out of his palm. It whirled around and looked at the woman who had dared to do this to him. The woman from the bedroom stood there and grabbed for another dagger. Her hands flicked, and two daggers stuck from the chest of the demon. It howled again in rage and charged at her.

She dodged it skillfully and drew a scimitar from her belt. Khan in the meantime had closed his eyes as he concentrated to break the magic circle. The woman managed to stand her own ground quite well. The demon had drawn a saw-toothed blade and swung at her with incredible speed and accuracy. She managed to defend herself and even landed some hits that would have slowed and handicapped a mortal opponent.

But the battle was hopeless for her as the unnatural strength and unending constitution of her immortal enemy wore her down, but she stood her ground and tried not to flinch. Khan began to feel the magical barrier around him grow weaker, if she could only manage to hold against the demon for a few minutes longer.

The demon suddenly doubled the ferocity of his attacks, he could sense that his prey would manage to free itself soon now, and then he would have to face an opponent that was much more dangerous than the puny mortal woman in front of him. The fiend let fly a faint to the right side of her body, only to pull the blade downwards at the last moment. He managed to slice the leg of the woman to the bone.

The woman screamed in pain, she tried to bring her blade up again in a defensive motion, but it was to late, the heavier blade of the demon broke again through her defenses and severed her weapon arm, directly over the elbow. Everything grew unreal, as she realized, in shock, what had occurred and nearly laughed at herself. She barely felt a thing as the fiend drove the blade through her chest, lifted her from the ground with it and flung her into the wall like a rag doll.

A wave of rage boiled up in Khan like he had never felt before, the barrier around him shattered and he threw himself against the demon. A series of mighty swings brought the enemy's back up against a wall. With a mighty, double-handed strike, Khan managed to unarm his opponent, the demon shrieked in fear. Khan brought the weapon back up in a swift motion and without a single instant of hesitation beheaded the fiend.

Then he looked at the broken body of the woman, and knelt next to it, taking her into her arms. She breathed, barely, but the damage was far to great to be cured, even by his magic. As she felt it, her blood smeared lips turned into a light smile.

"I knew… you would need…my help," she managed to cough. Khan just smiled at her, unable to speak. "Not even death…can keep me from… loving you. We will… always be… together." She closed her eyes, a spasm going through her body. "I… love… you!" Khan felt her body grew weak.

"I love you too, Seraphim, my guardian angel," he whispered.


Khan softly let the body slip to the ground. He stood up and ran into the direction that Calash had left. Tears ran down his face, couldn't see clearly, he stumbled, hit the wall and ran again. He ran up a path and emerged to a cliff. Calash stood there, smiling, holding a clear vial with a gray substance in his right hand. Calash smiled at the sight of Khan.

"Oh brother, my faith in you was not false, but," he made a dramatic pause and continued in a singsong voice. "You are too late, now the scum will be separated from the jewels, now the weak will be washed away by the hand of the judge, my hand."

Khan looked at him, his cheeks burning from the few tears he had shed. "Don't do it brother, even now you can be forgiven, even now you can come back into the light, even now, none of your sins rate so much that you could not make up for them." Is what he wanted to say, but he could not. All he could think of was the broken shape of Seraphim lying in a pool of her own blood, dead and gone. Instead he opened his mouth and screamed.

"If there is someone to be judged today, it is you, Calash. I will end your pitiful existence now and forever. The clean air of this land shall not be poisoned by your breath."

Calash answered with maniacal laugher. "Oh brother, do you miss you little whore? We will find you a better one, damn, we will build you a better one; but first let me take care of a minor matter before I will help you with that." He made a violent gesture with his arm and then poured the vial in the wind, a silvery fog built up and drifted slowly towards the city of Protera.

Khan was beyond rage, he charged his sibling and thrust out his hand, Calash didn't even make a gesture of defense as the hand entered his chest, breaking his ribs like twigs. Khan pulled and froze at the sight; he didn't pull out a beating heart, but a pulsating crystal of blood red color.


Ellone woke up, she felt drained, physically and emotionally, what she had just witnessed was nearly more than she could withstand. Khan looked at her.

"It is nearly over now. Protera was destroyed, ninety-nine from hundred people died that day, all those that my brother deemed unworthy of life. I went back to the council, and our father studied the strange crystal." He paused. "Calash had transferred his life into it, making it impossible to destroy him. So I took on my oath and guarded him till the end of time, the cavern your friends died in was made for that purpose. Our father and the other Sorcerers of the Council laid a mighty spell on the cavern that stopped time in there. This spell was recently broken by a disturbance in the very fabric of time, that I cannot explain.

"Time Compression," mumbled Ellone.

"Time Compression?" echoed Khan, the dawning of understanding on his face.

"Yes about 2 years ago a mighty sorceress from the future tried to compress time and rule everything in it." Ellone explained. Khan nodded.

"Anyway, the spell was broken and our minds where free again to roam. But Centra is an abandoned continent now, barely a living soul is there. So it was a long time before Calash could draw a living soul near enough to possess him." Khan took a breath and continued. "My brother possessed one of your comrades, a weak-minded individual called Nida. He used Nida to capture the other cadets and perform forbidden rituals on them to amass power; their suffering let him grow stronger. I will show you know what happened, as I finally was able to shake off the effects of the long sleep the Council had put me under.


Ellone found herself in another cavern, this time it was lit up by a sick-looking green light. She saw the familiar figure of Nida, setting up packages of explosives in the chamber, and another steel cocoon, not unlike the one Khan had occupied before he was born, was hanging from the wall. She also saw a heap of mutilated bodies, clothed in the remains of Seed Cadet uniforms.

Ellone shivered, this was frightening her more than anything before, this was no long-lost picture of a forgotten age, this was nearly the present, and she might have known some of them even. Then she saw something else, Zell, who stumbled into the main chamber. He kneeled down next to the bodies, his face frozen in pure terror.

She heard Zell whisper with another person; she could make out single words… "Zell," "life," "firstborn," and "end it." She saw Zell's face grow extremely serious as he pulled out a handgun and pulled the trigger once. After that, Zell just sagged to the floor.

Nida, no Calash, she corrected herself, the figure that looked like Nida but moved like Calash, had finished setting up the charges. Suddenly the metal cocoon burst open and Khan jumped out. He charged his brother, but Calash dodged and activated the timer on the bombs.

Both men got into battle positions; Khan had slight problems with his coordinating his movements, the long rest seemed to have slowed him down. Calash couldn't take advantage of this; however, he too was unused to Nida's body. They attacked at the same time, landing some minor hits that healed almost as quickly as the two could hurt each other.

Khan and Calash circled each other, each waiting for a chance to deliver a disabling blow. In the background the timer slowly ticked towards zero. Calash attacked again, fainted to the left, and brought up his leg to Khan's midsection, but to no avail. Khan dodged and spun around, landing a bone breaking kick to the back of Calash, the smaller figure was thrown into the main chambers of the cavern.

Khan rushed to the figure and picked it up by the throat, ready to rip the heart out of the chest, but suddenly Zell attacked him in the belief he was saving Nida. Zell landed some hits, then raised his hand with a gun and shot Khan at point blank range.

Khan fell down, unmoving, Zell picked up Nida, trying to escape the cavern. Khan got up again, following them; he caught them near to the entrance, pushed Zell away and again landing some heavy hits on Calash. Again Zell tried to stop him, but this time Khan was ready. He fought Zell back and was about to knock him out when the figure of Irvine appeared. The Cowboy aimed his Exeter Gun, and put Khan down again. He helped carry the unconscious figure of Nida onto the Ragnarok. Khan got up and managed to leave the cavern just before the bombs exploded. He stood in the night, clutching a piece of Zell's uniform. He looked at it and said, "Z. Dincht Balamb Garden. There I will find my brother."


Ellone awoke once again; Khan stood there and looked at her.

"You know my side of the story. You should go now and tell your brother and the others what you have seen, so they can judge by themselves which course of action they want to choose." Khan helped her stand up, he waved with his hand and a portal appeared. "This is to help your mind find its way through the void, you will arrive back in your own body safely." Ellone nodded, she was unsure what to say now. Khan smiled at her.

"Don't say anything, it's best." Ellone just nodded again and stepped towards the portal, the moment she stepped through it, she saw the figure of the woman winking at her.


Quistis burst into the room. Squall looked at her; she was out of breath as she explained what had happened in the Infirmary. He looked at her, trying to reach a decision. He was torn apart by the wish to guard his sister and the duty as Commander of SeeD. Quistis looked at him.

"Go and do what you must do; I will take care of Sis."

He nodded at her and left the room. Quistis and Ellone were left alone in it. Quistis sat down and looked at Ellone, a few minutes passed, and then Quistis saw that Ellone was breathing faster. Her eyelids moved, like she was having an intense dream. Ellone suddenly opened her eyes, unfocused. Quistis leaned over her and hugged her, feeling relief in every cell of her body.

"Are you alright?" she asked the older woman with concern in her voice.

"Yes… I need to talk to Squall, Zell is not…" Ellone answered her voice sounding weak. She didn't get to finish her sentence. The airshaft flew open and Zell landed crashing on the floor of the room.

"So you ladies are talking about me?" he asked in a mocking tone. "Well whatever you have to say, say it to my face." He walked towards them, Ellone rose and tried to get to the control panel to release Khan, but Zell just hit her without even looking. She crashed unconsciously to the floor, a small line of blood pouring from her nose, down her chin.

Quistis reached for Save the Queen, but Zell moved like a snake, hitting her wrist before she could get a hold on it. Then he picked her up by the throat and pushed her against a wall. Quistis tried to blink away the pain, her wrist was pulsating with pain and her head hurt. She saw Zell's face up close as he brutally grabbed her breast, and whispered menacingly in her ear.

"You are really beautiful, unfortunally I don't have the time. We could really have some fun with each other, but unfortunally my only pleasure with you will be your death." His hand grabbed a gun from his belt and set it on her stomach, a cruel smile on his face as he pulled the trigger twice.

Pain beyond pain filled Quistis's body, the bullets exploded in her abdomen, ripping away muscles, organs, and tissue. The last thing she felt was the floor, as Zell let her fall to the ground like a piece of trash.


A/N: My greatest thanks go to Rhyein for patiently proofing this and helping me with useful critic while writing this.