Remembrance

"Do you think he'll be okay, Doctor Tot?" Garnet asked hopefully.

"Princess, I'm sorry, but now there's really no way to tell. I think we should just leave him alone and let him figure this out on his own."

Garnet looked at Zidane, lying on a bed in the airship's luscious, warm accommodations. She noticed that he was shivering immensely. "You're going to make it through this, Zidane." she said softly, so only herself and the unconscious man could hear.

Somehow, she knew he was listening.

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Zidane found himself hiding, curled up in the fetal position, in a dark space.

A massive ball of dark light zoomed towards him, holding the falsifications which had been presented to him in his delirium amidst the harsh desert sands.

He brought forth the iota of light which represented his failing true memories, and began his hopeless battle against the darkness.

The evil presence brought forth thousands of tiny Hells-Beatings, burnings, starvation, persecution, slavery-, but Zidane steeled himself for the oncoming assault, readying the light which, for him, was his last connection to the true world.

Sometimes, during the torture, he began to forget that it wasn't real as the demon Remembrance worked its vast power upon him, searing his body and soul with blackest hatred and flame, but Zidane, as he felt the memories seap out of his mind like wet sand out of a child's hands, grasped painfully at the everpresent beacon bright light, holding back the tide of darkness. There then appeared a torture unique and ghatly in a field all its own. It was the burning village that Zidane

had destroyed. Seeing it brought shooting pain all throughout his soul, but he reminded himself that this was all just an illusion, though it was so horrifingly and painfully real that it was sometimes hard to believe.

Garnet, Beatrix, Steiner, Eiko, Quina, Amarant, Regent Cid, Vivi, they all appeared in his dream.

"Come on, Zidane, let's play!" Eiko pleaded in her shrill, childish voice.

 "Zidane, come back..." Cid said. As Zidane was screaming to warn him, a great claw came down upon the ruler of Lindbulm, crushing the defenseless old man and bringing forth a river of deep red blood. The creature brought its hand up, and splayed across it was the remains of the proud ruler, in a grotesque caricature of what they had once been. Zidane felt tears fall freely down his face as he saw the demon's claw crush the small, gentle, intelligent boy Vivi. Zidane screamed even more as he thought of all the great things he had done with Vivi, what a good friendship they had created together. The demon, again and again, massacred his friends. First Cid, then the gentle boy Vivi, undeserving of such a terrible death, then poor, ignorant Quina , then, of all the injustices, why did Eiko have to die?...

Zidane watched in horror, screaming, as the monster killed them all until only one was left alive. Garnet, covered in the gore of her comrades, pleaded for Zidane to save her. The Genome, struggling to break free of his paralysis, watched the hand slowly come down upon her, but just as her crying was to be silenced forever, he jumped over her in an attempt to protect the woman.

The claw faltered, and then, all at once, fell into the ground, disintegrating quietly. A demonic roar permeated Zidane's dreamland, and reality began to snap apart like paper being torn to shreds. Through it all, Zidane gripped Garnet in a tight embrace, protecting her from the demons of his mind as the village continued to burn and his hallucination ended.


The End

Notes: Before I sent this out to my friends Luna and Kingpin, this was a pretty crappy story. I got some really great advice from them.

Also special thanks to Law for being beta reader for some of my other stuff, and Tiffy for moral support.

And thanks to the reviewers too.

I know that authors usually put this kind of thing at the very end of the story, but rest assured, this tale isn't nearly over yet.