Chapter 3
Sabin watched the view in front of him. Ocean, ocean, ocean, ocean etc.
It was boring. And when he got bored, he wanted to hit something. Now was not exactly the time, though. Setzer would be mad. So he had to think of something else. Maybe he should practice some conversation. He had been working on that for quite some time now, after beginning to think about doing something more with his life then to train and fight. It had been enough for as long as he could remember, but lately he had felt a little... alone. So he had begun to make experiments. Talking could be really fun, he had found out that with great amaze.
"Hey, Setzer!" he called and walked over to the albino man who was driving the Falcon.
"Yeah?" the gambler said with a grin.
He had also found, to his amaze, that Sabin could lead really interesting discussions when he actually tried. They had laughed themselves through the whole evening the other day. To bad he couldn't remember what they had talked about... too much wine.
"Well," Sabin said and went through the list of subjects, "Terra?"
"Terra?" Setzer thoughtfully repeated, "green hair, pretty... wonderful woman."
"I wouldn't say she's just plain pretty," Sabin said and got something dreaming in his eyes.
'Good grief...' Setzer thought and smiled to himself, 'Sabin?!'
There was a sudden thump!
"Hello, Shadow," the two men said without even turning around.
"Good afternoon."
"How long had you been up there?" Setzer asked, as someone who's into business.
"Since you left South Figaro."
The ninja and Interceptor walked over to the stem of the airship.
"Heading to Mobliz too?" Sabin said.
"Yes. I have to see if Gogo kept his promise."
"Gogo?" Setzer and Sabin repeated, puzzled.
"Left him there a week ago," Shadow said without turning around, "if he has done as he promised me he would, then I guess all is well so far. Otherwise I'll help Gogo to speak whether he likes it or not."
There was a very rare anger in the ninja's voice. Even Interceptor looked nervously at him.
"So, you… hm, want Gogo to be honest?" Sabin said, extremely careful.
"Yes, I do," Shadow growled, "there is something that he should have told all of you a long time ago."
Shadow snorted and finally glanced over his shoulder.
"I do have some sense of honor, you know. And Gogo's silence is far below any sort of that twisted thing."
"Can this ting fly any faster?" Sabin whispered from the corner of his lips.
"I'll try..." Setzer replied.
They landed outside of Mobliz about one hour later. Terra ran out to meet them, smiling.
"Hello, Setzer, Sabin! Oh, Shadow?"
"Has he told you?" the ninja coldly said.
Terra's eyebrows went up.
"Told me? Who, Gogo?" she said.
"He hasn't. Come, Interceptor."
"Hold it!"
Sabin had been bored for far too long. He leaped over Shadow's head and blocked his way. It was hard to tell who in the group was most surprised. Maybe Sabin himself. But he found himself quickly.
"Why are you so mad at Gogo? Take it easy!" he said.
"I took it easy for more than a year," Shadow coldly said, "now I'm tired of him. Move."
"Now wait a darn minute..."
"No, it's true," Gogo's voice sadly said, "Shadow is right."
They all turned to look at the mimic. He looked as if he had been walking around the world ten times, carrying a house on his shoulders.
"You didn't keep your word, Gogo," Shadow coldly said, "we had an agreement. I'll have to keep my part if you didn't, as you said yourself."
Gogo sighed.
"I know I had a week to speak, Shadow," he said in a tired voice, "but please give me one more day. If I can't do it, then you can... help me whatever I say."
There was a silence. Everyone anxiously and wondering awaited Shadow's answer.
"One day," the ninja finally said, "I'll come to Terra's house tomorrow evening to hear your story or tell it myself."
And with that, Shadow turned and walked down the long shoreline south of the town, Interceptor by his side.
"What's this all about?" Setzer asked.
"It's about me."
Gogo turned and walked back into town without another word.
"He's been living by me for a week," Terra explained, concerned, "and he's been trying to tell me about himself. But he can't, it seems too painful. And I've got the idea that Shadow don't want to be alone knowing it anymore."
Sabin and Setzer nodded.
"He said something about honor," the gambler said, "and, well... it's apparent that Gogo promised that he would tell his secrets. I'm really curious now, Shadow is taking this gravely personal."
"Well, I guess we can only wait," Terra sighed.
He stood in the guestroom that Terra had given him. It hadn't been easier to sleep during the night with Sabin's snoring roaring from the living-room. He had been sleeping on the couch, his companions had too well remembered how it had been trying to fall asleep by his side during the quest. So Setzer and Gogo had refused to share the room with him, and the gambler had concluded that the mimic needed peace of mind for a while longer; therefore not asking to sleep in his room. Sabin had understood. Eventually.
The sun was sinking outside. Gogo could come to that conclusion even though he had shut the curtain tightly. There's just something about certain light...
He stared at himself in the mirror on the wall (if Terra had known anything about Feng Zhui, this scene had been totally spoiled). For the first time in many years he had removed the whole helmet and veil in a house he wasn't completely safe in. Surely, he had locked the door, but anyone of his friends could break it down any second. Yet he had chosen to trust them. He knew he could. It hurt. It was like a red hot dagger that worked its way through his whole soul. Friends. But...
The fear grew again, and he almost wanted to run. But it was too late. He wouldn't make it far, and there was absolutely no place in the whole world where he could hide. Not from Shadow. The ninja had had enough. From the very first moment that they had brought Gogo out of the zone eater, Shadow had waited for the truth. But it had never arisen from its grave; time hadn't made it easier. No, it had walked in the other direction, filling the mimic with disgust. Shadow was a patient man, but the disgust had gripped him too, and he wanted the truth to be revealed to clean up as much as possible.
Gogo stared at the face he had hidden for so many years. How long had it been? How old was Terra? 21? Yes, she had been eighteen when she had been saved from the empire, then it had taken half a year before the goddesses were moved. And then one more year before the group had started to assemble again in the World of Ruin. That process, which had ended with the madman's fall, had taken another six months. And another year had passed since then…
The reflection stared back with loathing in its eyes.
"I hate you…" Gogo growled, touching the reflection's pale, scarred cheek, "I hate you!"
He recoiled, backing into the other wall with his hand pressed against his mouth. The words stained his tongue and lips, filled the air and laughed scornfully at him. He could almost hear another voice laugh, a voice so screeching and harsh that it sent shivers through Gogo's whole body. He sunk to his knees, burying his face in his hands.
21 years…
This face, that he had begun to dread, the face which was his…
I hate you.
There was a knock on the door.
"Gogo?" Terra carefully said on the other side of the wood, "Shadow has come."
"I'm coming too," Gogo answered.
She still called him Gogo. That felt like the last grain of security left in his life. And soon it would be gone.
He stood up and put on the veil and the helmet. So little had kept his secrets away, only this thin piece of cloth. He knew what those who now awaited him could do when they found out. But he didn't fear death, that had been very long ago. He only feared the fury of his... friends.
Only trying to mend, not wanting to be a part of a group... but what had happened? Something had gone wrong. He had begun to care about them, all of them. Edgar, Strago, Relm, Locke, Celes, Terra... how he had suffered keeping quiet and knowing that they trusted him! How he had feared their anger when facing the truth!
It was too late. He had to bring it up, bring up his story and his face. And hope that they wouldn't scream.
He secured the veil and then unlocked the door.
They waited for him in the living room, all of them. Setzer, Sabin, Interceptor, Shadow and Terra.
Oh, Terra... forgive me for telling you the truth, but I have to...
He sat down in the sofa, and they all watched him.
Begin, their eyes pleaded, we trust you. Shadow only looked coldly and demanding at him. He took a deep breath and began.
"First of all," he slowly said, "I know Shadow from a time when he saved my life. He had come looking for a friend, but he found me instead. I never asked and I will never ask why you took me when your friend wasn't to be found."
Shadow said naught.
"I was in an absolutely secure cell in Vector," Gogo bitterly continued, and several eyebrows went up in surprise, "no windows, a thick, unbreakable door, guards everywhere... everything. And yet, Shadow got me out of there. As you understand, the empire wanted me out of the way. So Shadow brought me to Triangle island and into a zone eater; we both knew that nobody would look for me there. He was also the one who brought me these clothes."
Those who still waited for the whole story hardly believed their ears. This was unbelievable. Shadow doing such a thing? Who the...?
"One can say that yellow clothes with green and red stripes are something that lies within my family. We used to have it on our family herald long ago..."
Gogo fell silent.
"Go on," Shadow coldly said, "you haven't come to the important facts yet."
"I'm getting to it..." Gogo sighed and continued, "it was down in the zone eater that I learnt to mimic. There wasn't much else I could do. Those other 'humans' you saw down there were simply humanoid monsters. I started to mimic to keep sane, and I found it to be a powerful weapon if I got attacked. So I trained and trained... and then you people showed up one day."
He fell silent again. Then he took a deep, slightly shivering breath.
"I know... that you want to know now... why I was imprisoned in the first place. Before that, I was a powerful man among the empire. I worked only by Gesthal's orders, but... I suddenly began to ask myself what I was doing. And somebody who I trusted more than anyone else... whispered in Gesthal's ear, and so I was imprisoned."
A silence followed.
"But Gogo," Terra finally said, "if you betrayed the empire... you fought on our side, you know."
Shadow held up a hand.
"Wait before you forgive, Terra," he coldly said, "you haven't heard, or rather seen, the best yet. Now, Gogo."
Closing his eyes, Gogo reached up and put his hands on the helmet. But then his arms fell.
"Shadow..." he whispered, as if pleading for mercy, asking the assassin not to put him through this.
But the ninja walked over to him without a word, pulled out a dagger and cut the veil and helmet's cloth in pieces. Gogo hid his face in his hands as Shadow violently ripped all the equipment away, then finally grabbed the mimic's wrist and tore his hands away from… his… face. That face.
Terra, Sabin and Setzer stared. Gogo stared back.
Shadow let go of the shivering wrists and crossed his arms.
They stared at him. He stared back.
Terra, Sabin and Setzer stared at Gogo.
Kefka stared back.