AN: A strangely inspired musing...
Disclaimers: I don't own any ff8 characters, they are © Squaresoft, and I am making no money for this fic :( so don't bother suing me cause you ain't gonna get much...
Rated PG for suggestion
***
Hours later I have stripped the events I have missed from the scientist's mind. He wavers for a moment, then collapses. He will die within a few hours, but within that time he can still be useful to me. I have sensed the scientists scurrying around above me, thinking to imprison me with a relic of my time. I remember Bahamut well. Those creatures that these mortals call GFs were once Centra... Fear paralyses my limbs, whilst my mind races. Centra who were changed by secret processes... Could that be what my captors meant when they said I would change?
But, I do not feel changed. I frown, brow furrowing fiercely and look, for the first time, at myself as the dying scientist sees me. Always before I saw myself as others saw me, often an illusion, for they saw what I wished them to see, but the dying are not susceptible to illusion.
I recoil in horror from what I see. A giant, towering, *thing* that is no longer recognisable as even remotely humanoid. I examine myself more closely, using the scientist's broken mind as a mirror. What am I? I look more machine than living creature. I doubt even Bahamut would recognise me. I am twisted and deformed, and the screaming heads of those who fought to capture me, so long ago, wind around what I now believe to be my chest. My back appears to be bent over by the weight of a giant focus crystal, although it feels as though I still stand straight and tall.
I wonder, with a twinge of fear, what power they have left me. I do not feel weaker than before, but given everything else, I no longer know if what I feel is reality or just memory. I dive deep into my own psyche, searching for something, anything, that might indicate how far change has spread. I don't even know how the changes are affected, does the physical change first? Or does the psyche change and force the body to follow suit? Am I still an Eternal One? I guess that answer at least must be yes, given that Bahamut and the others are still alive.
I can't seem to find anything different within my psyche. I sense a marginal decrease in my power, but not significant enough for me to worry overmuch. I doubt Hyne's blood is very pure by now. Despite their efforts to keep the chain intact, sorceresses never trusted one another overmuch, and even in my time they were weakening. Besides, I cannot feel any being with as much strength as me in this sphere of existence.
Satisfied that, even as a GF, I will be able to make my return, I decide to continue with my plan. Bahamut's presence will prevent anyone disturbing me whilst I work, whilst I plan.
I quickly set to work, using the vast array of materials around me to create a relic as old as I, if in a newer shell. A beast rider. Lovingly I transfer the body of the scientist into the rider, fusing man and machine together. Physical brain is invaded by microscopic robots and becomes fused into the computer controlling the rider and mount. I have little time, and the replica is a crude reconstruction of a soldier from the legions of such creatures I once controlled. I wonder, as the meat/metal fusion continues, if any of my army survived, in some freak show, or deactivated and hidden.
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AN: Guessed who it is yet?