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Cause and Effect
In the Eye of the End
An arresting, freezing scream, one like no other ever encountered. The shrill, cold tone breaks away from lips wide open with terror. As flesh is torn from bone, satisfying the hunger of the Iifan vines, the victim writhes under his protector, utterly helpless. The terrifying death scream cuts through stagnant air and mortal mind alike. Someone has died this day. ***** I tried so hard, and got so far. But, in the end, it doesn't even matter. I had to fall to lose it all. But, in the end, it doesn't even matter. ***** Zidane woke up. And he felt very, very cold. His eyes slowly opened. Then he screamed as his eyes opened wide and lifted his face off the ground, up onto his knees, and promptly fell backwards onto his rear, trying to scramble away from the sight before him. "Oh, Kuja..." The man's body was completely annihilated: his left leg and arm were completely missing from the body and Zidane couldn't tear his eyes away from the sickening sight to know where they had been flung to. Kuja's face was torn and had been bleeding - but the blood no longer circulated to heal the two-by-two-inch area of torn flesh, hanging from the right cheek. Matted and tangled hair framed the pale face, still shining, but with a red coating of sprayed blood. His armor was broken and hanging from his body, revealing part of his blood-encrusted chest. His remaining arm was obviously broken in the way it was rotated and bent. There were two gaping holes in Kuja's chest and stomach, the larger of the two through his bare stomach, the intestines oozing out of the broken ribs and the muscle in the chest was clearly visible. But the worse thing was what Zidane couldn't stop staring at. "Oh, god..." Zidane mumbles, "oh, my fucking god..." He felt so sick, he heaved dryly, but nothing came up from his empty stomach. When he finally looked back up again, the sickened look still on his tired face, he gagged again. Kuja's dim, blue, sadly dull eyes stared up at an invisible, fatal enemy, the most frightened, horrified look captured. For, when one dies, the eyes do not close. "Oh, Kuja..." Zidane bent forward, flattening his palms on the red-green leaf and plants, staring openly at the bloodstained surface. He couldn't believe the expression left upon his rival's face; how utterly frightened the man looked. "Kuja...brother...why did it have to...why did I...Kuja..." Zidane finally broke down and cried. ***** "Zidane! Zidaaaaaaane!" Queen Garnet til Alexandros XVII yelled into the void of the Iifa Tree's roots. She and two others, Vivi and Eiko, stood at the edge of the canyon. There was no answer. "Zidane!" Still nothing. She sighed. "Don't worry, Dagger. We'll find him," Vivi offered, trying to be helpful and comforting. But, inside, though he didn't want to admit it, he didn't really believe Zidane could be found. "Yeah, of course we will!" Eiko agreed with optimistic cheer. "He's a survivor, he'll be okay!" "I hope you two are right..." Dagger replied with another sigh. She hoped with all her heart that Zidane was all right. If he wasn't...well, that thought alone brought tears to her eyes. "Come on, let's go down there and look for him!" Eiko jumped down into the canyon, landing on a stable root. She looked up at the two still left on the cliff's edge. "Aren't you coming?" she called up. Dagger looked at Vivi. "You first, Vivi." Vivi nodded nervously and carefully stepped closer to the edge, then carefully jumped off the edge and slid down the dirt face. Dagger sighed once more. "Zidane, please be okay..." Then she, too, jumped off the side of the cliff, joining Eiko and Vivi. ***** They searched for hours. "Hey, Dagger! I think I found- oh gross!" Eiko disappeared behind a clump of leaves. "Vivi, over this way," Dagger said to the little black mage as she made her way over to the same leaf cluster. Vivi followed behind quickly. The queen could already feel tears stinging her eyes. Please have survived, please have survived... But when she made her way past the bush, she screamed and turned a 180-degree half-circle, facing away from the same sight that had greeted Zidane when he had woken up hours before. Vivi's reaction was much the same as the yellow ovals of light grew wider, then disappeared as he looked away. "Was that...?" Dagger began, but she couldn't finish the question. Eiko was already at the body. "It's Kuja alright...well, it used to be...oh gross..." She soon got sick and turned away from the massacred body. "Zidane!" she squeaked and scrambled over to the boy lying on the ground, making sure not to face Kuja's remains. "It's Zidane! Dagger!" Dagger was already hurrying to Zidane, following Eiko's voice, after braving the risk of seeing Kuja again. Vivi followed right behind her. Holding a hand over her face to block the sight of Kuja's body, she knelt down next to the boy. "Zidane? Wake up." She began shaking him. Zidane was lying on his stomach and his eyes were closed. "Please, Zidane, wake up." She turned him over, then her eyes grew wide. "Zidane!" she gasped, "Oh, Zidane, no..." Now that Zidane was on his back, the large wound on his stomach could be seen, surrounded by dark, dry blood, staining his shirt and pants. His face was blood- and tear-stained. "Zidane...?" Eiko whined as tears came to her eyes. "Please don't be dead, Zidane..." Dagger picked up Zidane's wrist and felt for a pulse. She began to cry. "Oh, no, no, no, dear god, no...Zidane...Zidane! Wake up!" She shook him harder, trying, desperately, to wake him from his eternal sleep. But the minutes ticked by, the wide eyes grew wet, and there was still no pulse. Zidane Tribal was dead.
*****
"...So, what do you think he died from?" Amarant asked Freya. Sitting at a bar in Lindblum, both of them, even Amarant, was duller than usual. "...I'm not sure," Freya replied simply. "Logically, I would assume the vine's puncture wound." "...I don't think something like that would kill him." "...You're right, of course. He's too strong to have died from just an injury, even if it was in the stomach. ...It makes no sense. Why didn't he use that Elixir that he had? He would have tried to save himself." "..." Freya sighs. "What do you think?" "...I think he cried himself to death." "What?" Freya turned her head away from her drink to look at Amarant with a curious frown. "I think he cried himself to death," Amarant repeats. "The vines went for both of them, Kuja protected Zidane, like he had while we were fighting Necron, and Zidane lived through it. When he woke up, Kuja was dead and he cried." Amarant takes an indifferent drink of his beverage. "What about the Elixir?" "Grieved too much to remember it." "...So, you're saying that he cried himself to exhaustion, then died in his sleep, perhaps?" Amarant says nothing, his only responce is a single shrug as he takes another sip of his drink. "...But why would he cry over Kuja after all that he's done to him and the planet?" "'Cause he couldn't protect Kuja. Or because Kuja couldn't protect himself." "I guess that would have been his style, hm? To save even his enemies..." Freya shakes her head as she takes another sip of her drink. "He will be missed." The End
*****
So, there you have it. Like it? Hate it? Well, that's all good. Nice criticism in the reviews would be the best. Tell me what you liked or didn't like or what could be improved or removed. ^_^ I'm really only comfortable writing Kuja and Zidane's characters, so I'm not too sure how in character I played the others. Do let me know, I'd like some advice.