The Return of Ultimecia

Author: SoulOfFlame

Chapter 10: The Fate of Two Women

~*~Soul~*~: Okay back again and this time I updated twice in a day to apologize to my readers! So here's Chapter 10, I hope this will help to explain where I am going with this. Maybe if I still feel guilty after this I'll write another Chapter and post it too. (Can you tell I feel badly?) Once again, thank you to my readers! Hope this turns out okay!

Tempest: Yes because if it doesn't she'll cry and I'll have to comfort her again ... *sigh* Please don't make me do that again.

~*~Soul~*~: How rude! Anyway, I guess it's time for the disclaimer ... I own nothing but the idea and the characters you do not find in the game. Everything else belongs to Squaresoft.

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Quistis opened her eyes slowly and looked around her, trying to focus. She blinked but still the fuzziness of her vision remained. All she could see was white. She sat up and tried to stand on her feet but her legs seemed to disobey her command and she nearly fell. A pair of strong arms caught her around her waist, which gently helped her regain her balance. She turned to thank the person but could not see anyone. Hyne was she blind? She hoped not. She had been through enough in one day without this too. She placed a hand on her forehead in frustration, and realized she could see her hand in front of her face. It stood out crystal clear against the fuzzy white she was surrounded by, and she quickly looked about her in search of the one who had caught her. Although she was certain that someone had helped her, and could still feel their presence, she saw nothing, but an opaque white that stretched as far as she could see.

"Don't look with your eyes Young One. Perhaps instead you should seek with your heart, for that is the only way to find what you wish to see." Said a voice behind her. The voice was deep and rough, yet kind and held the tone of one who was very old and very wise. Quistis spun in the direction she thought the man's voice had come from and raised an eyebrow. What in Hyne's name was this man talking about?

"Whoever you are, I don't understand what you mean. But thank you for helping me." Said Quistis looking about her. The voice laughed softly and Quistis knew that the man was smiling at her, wherever he was.

"Oh my dear, you are so like your Mother." As Quistis turned to face the sound a man clothed entirely in white seemed to materialize out of the blank background. He smiled at her, and Quistis could see the kindness and laughter in his faded azure eyes. His hair was pure white, and reached his mid-back, and he also had a beard of the same color and length. Although he should have matched the background, there was something about him that made him seem a different color than their surroundings altogether. He reached out and gently stroked Quistis' cheek.

"Who are you? You seem so familiar to me somehow." Said Quistis softly, unable to take her eyes from the man before her. He laughed and took a step back from her. As he moved, Quistis realized why the man stood out. His robes were not just white, but all the colors of the spectrum and probably more. They shone faintly as he moved and he nodded at her as she watched his gowns.

"Yes, my robes are of many colors as opposed to just one. Your eyes do not deceive you." He said as if reading her thoughts. Quistis shifted her gaze to his face and opened her mouth to reply but he held up a hand to silence her. "There is no time. I can only keep you here for so long. Trust me my Child, you will have all the answers you seek soon enough. Perhaps even more than you seek if I am correct, which I normally am." Quistis closed her mouth and waited for him to explain himself, not quite understanding what was happening.

"You see My Dear; this place is the Sacred Realm of Illumination. It is here that the Children of the Sun have lived in generations past. It is this very realm that those children left have drawn their power from for many years in the past and many more yet to come. The Children of the Sacred Dawn have lost their power in the past thirty years and without their Queen we cannot assemble and try to destroy the darkness that has befallen our kin, The People of the Divine Twilight. I realize this will not make sense to you now, but in time, all shall be revealed. I must ask you to undertake a great task for your people My Daughter." The man paused and waited for her to give her answer.

"I don't know what you are talking about, or what you want me to do, but I do feel that I can trust you. For this reason I will do what task you wish of me if it is in my power to do so. But if you betray me you shall live every day of your life regretting it." Quistis warned him. She was wary of her judgment to trust the old man, but she felt a strong ambiance of good around him and so she let her gut do the deciding.

"Those words are wise beyond your years; the aura of your Mother indeed lies within you. But there is no time for such matters, for we are undeniably pressed. You must fulfill your destiny and defeat the Sorceress Ultimecia. Her reign over our brethren must come to an end. Only when you have done this, can you take your equitable place and end the silence between the two empires. You must work with the daughter of the late Queen of the People of the Divine Twilight, and bring the world to peace again. Only you can do this, and so it is imperative that you accomplish the great task written in your destiny." The man's voice had long lost its laughter and the tone replacing it was one of solemnity and dire urgency.

Quistis was confused and taken aback that this man would ask her such a thing. How was she supposed to take on Ultimecia alone and unify two peoples she didn't know anything about? She had no idea what this man was thinking but he must be crazy to ask her to do such a thing. She didn't know what to say, think, do, didn't know anything except that she wasn't capable of such a thing. She closed her eyes and shook her head to clear her thoughts. What a day, she thought.

"Sir, I'm honored that you would choose me for such a thing but-" The man interrupted her.

"I Quistis Trepe did not choose you, but by the One who makes all of the big decisions for all of us. The great and powerful Hyne chose you, and your birthright is to do this task for your people." He said.

"I don't understand." Quistis said helplessly. The man approached her with a serious yet gentle manner.

"I will explain this all to you, but you must be ready to face things better and yet far worse than you ever imagined." He explained. "Are you prepared to face your past?" Quistis nodded and the man led her by the arm to a chair he conjured out of the nothingness Quistis had thought was surrounding them.

"In times past, there was a great balancing of Harmony among the peoples of this great land we now call Earth. The great and mystical Hyne lived in the heavens with his two daughters: Solaris and Selena. These two lived in their kingdoms, watching over the vast empire their Mother had created. It later termed Space by those who spoke of it. Solaris and Selena decided to create a kingdom together that would glorify their Mother to her proper extent. They would create beings to live on it and they would all revere and worship the Great Hyne. So, they combined their forces and created what they called Terrene. They created animals and plants and put their powers into forms where they could be used for the beings that lived there, such as water and fire. Greatest of all, they created what they called Humans. Man looked like Hyne if she had a masculine form, and resembled her just as strongly in its feminine form. These Humans worshipped Hyne and devoted their lives to Her ways. Solaris and Selena were very proud of their accomplishment, and thought they had done what they had set out to do. Then they presented their gift to their Mother. When Hyne saw what her children had done, she was greatly angered, for she thought that her children were trying to mock her power by doing such a thing as she had never been able to do herself. Hyne did not know that her daughters were only able to succeed because they combined their efforts."

"Solaris and Selena were greatly distressed by their Mother's disapproval and so they decided to rule their New Kingdom together. Solaris would rule for the first half since she was the eldest, and Selena would rule after her. They continued to rule this way, each one taking turn, and life in their kingdom thrived. The Humans used the things left to them by the Daughters and held them in high regard. They split into two groups that revered one of the Daughters. One group called themselves The Children of the Sacred Dawn, for they felt that the Earth, as they called Terrene, was most beautiful when Solaris came to begin her rule and her sister Selena went to her rest. The People of the Divine Twilight were the others that felt when Selena ruled at the middle of her reign, that it was the most wonderful time in their world. The two sides lived in peace, each revering its own Goddess, as they referred to the Daughters, and the Great Hyne. Solaris and Selena were so flattered that they gave their followers a piece of themselves to their followers, so that they could use a limited amount of power that had been used by the two daughters in the creation of Terrene."

"The two sides had different powers, and looked different from one another in many ways. The Children of the Sacred Dawn had blonde hair and blue eyes, with skin that was as white as snow. They resembled Solaris very much and their powers were that of earth, fire, and light. As for the Children of the Divine Twilight, they had hair black as night and eyes of the darkest brown. Their powers consisted of the wind and water, and also of the shadow. Mind you that the powers of shadow were not evil, merely of the darkness. These two sides became separated from one another and lived without contact for a long while. It was not until a grave and serious matter fell on both clans that they came in contact once they separated."

"It so happened that there was a woman named Rika who was a Child of the Sacred Dawn. She was out wandering the Earth and taking in the beautiful sights of the dawn when she ran into a young man named Mitsuru, who was returning from his journey to see the land in the beauty of the Twilight. The two talked from Dawn until Twilight, watching the beauty of both sides. While they were together they fell in love, and so the next day they made a promise as the sun and moon, as they called the kingdoms of Solaris and Selena, could both be seen in the sky. They vowed to return the following day at the same time in the place where they had first met. Then they returned home."

"When Rika returned home her family asked her where she had been and Rika told them what she had done and how she had fallen in love with Mitsuru. Her brother, Satoshi, felt that this man was not worthy of his sister, and so he decided to follow his sister when she met her lover the next day. When Rika left to meet Mitsuru, Satoshi followed behind her at a distance. She went into a grove of trees and as Satoshi followed he heard his sister cry out for help. He quickly rushed in to help her. When he arrived, Mitsuru stood over a fallen and bleeding Rika, with blood staining his sword. In a blind rage, Satoshi attacked Mitsuru and killed him before taking his sister home. He never saw the fallen T-Rexaur that had a slit across its throat, lying in the bushes at the edge of the clearing. Rika died that night from her wounds."

"When the news of Mitsuru's death reached his people, they were angered and thought that Satoshi had murdered him out of jealousy. They stormed to kill Satoshi and his people. When they reached them, an argument broke out which escaladed into a great battle which people later called War. Many died in the battle, and Solaris rushed to her sister for aid in stopping the battle between their peoples. When the two arrived, they ceased the fighting immediately. They declared that there would be no more fighting between these two clans, for it did not honor them to fight in this way. They took some power from each of the Humans, and sealed it into two amulets. Then they said to choose one person from each clan to be their leader and decide these things for their people. One person to rule them. The Children of the Sacred Dawn chose a woman named Aki, and the People of the Divine Twilight chose a woman named Keiko. These women ruled their people justly, and were more powerful than the others. They decided to shorten their clan names into a common name so that they could greet each other easily, and became close friends."

"The Children of the Sacred Dawn became known as the Magicians, the men, and Mages, the women. Meanwhile, the People of the Divine Twilight became Sorcerers, the men, and Sorceresses, the women. They lived in peace for many years and some of them fell in love between clans, creating those who had lighter brown hair or hair that was red like fire, those with eyes of green, or gray, or any color in between. And so they lived in peace until the woman Aki died. She was replaced by her daughter, Rei. When Keiko died, she too was replaced by her daughter, Mai. This process repeated itself for many years until one woman, Adel, turned her back on the Children of the Sacred Dawn. She was the Queen of the People of the Divine Twilight, and so she was very powerful. At this time, some people who had done terrible deeds had been stripped of their powers, and had become "mortal" as it was called. These people grew into Men and Women and were collectively called Humans, and so the Magicians, Mages, Sorcerers, and Sorceresses, were not the only type of Human on Earth. Adel began teaching her people to turn against their friends, saying that they were liars and coming up with wild tales of what they had done that proved what she wanted them to believe. She caused many to pretend they were mortal to escape her wrath. The Queen of the Children of the Sacred Dawn at the time was Kalandin, a powerful and just woman, and Adel was jealous because she was not a purebred like Kalandin. She was a half-breed as she termed it, and so she wanted to destroy her ruling partner. She turned on the Humans and waged a war against them, knowing that Kalandin would be too noble to let them fend for themselves. She was right, and Kalandin helped the Mortals fight Adel."

"Adel knew that she was losing, for nearly a year into the war, she had lost her supporters and was left with only her husband, the Guardian of the Night, by her side. In the battle that killed the last of her troops, he died, and so Adel planned to have Kalandin assassinated so that she could be the most powerful being on Earth and avenge her husband's death. Kalandin had just given birth to a baby girl and, fearing for her life, sent her away to grow up as a mortal with her powers secret to her. For mortals were not only those who had been stripped of their powers and exiled, but those who never awakened their powers. She sent her to live at an orphanage where she knew her daughter, who she had named Quistis, would be safe."

"Kalandin was, as she had feared, assassinated along with her husband. Yet before she died she sealed all of their power into an amulet, and his the amulet in a secret location that no one could ever find but her daughter. Angered at the loss of their Queen, the Children of the Sacred Dawn overthrew Adel and stripped her of her powers. Kalandin's replacement was me, as I was the one chosen by the people. A year later we destroyed Adel's amulet of power, the one given to Keiko by Selena, and then helped the mortals seal her inside a device the mortals created. She was to be sealed there for eternity and some stayed behind as to make sure she had been sealed in space. I ruled for the Children of the Sacred Dawn from that point on and we assumed that Adel had no living heir, so she was replaced by a woman named Milanikai. She and I ruled together until now, thinking we were there were no others of either bloodline left. That is until now."

"You see, Dear Quistis, Adel never died. She sent some of her soul to the future, a capability we never knew she had, and created a life for herself there. That life, or person rather, was Ultimecia. We also did not know that Adel had given birth to a baby girl about a year after Kalandin had been killed, and right before her isolation. This girl had been carefully hidden with a mortal man who had been placed under a spell to think his wife, who never existed, had died in childbirth after giving birth to his daughter. This girl will be told the same story by Milanikai when she manages to locate the girl. You however, have your own tasks at hand. You must bring the people back together, and awaken the power within all of those who have lost it. Ultimecia can return to this time because of her link to Adel. When Adel was destroyed, and Ultimecia was supposedly killed, she sent part of her forward in time again as the Sorceress Terrene, cleverly named after the original name for this world, and so she must be destroyed again. This time you must prevent her from sending herself forward again, or history will continue to repeat itself. Do you understand what I am telling you?" He asked.

"I understand." said Quistis in a state of shock at receiving this unexpected information. A tear slid down her cheek and she brushed it away absentmindedly. It had been a long day, and it wasn't getting any better.

"Then will you do this for me, for your people?" He asked. Quistis looked him in the eyes and realized that she truly was the only hope left for the world. Her and the girl around her age who was about to realize the exact same thing Quistis just had: If they failed, the world would perish.

"I will." She replied without a second thought. She knew what she had to do, like it or not. The man smiled and walked over to her, multihued cloak flowing behind him, and pulled her into a hug.

"May Hyne and Solaris both protect you, and may you bring peace to this world." He said softly. Quistis thanked him and he nodded before turning to leave.

"Wait! How do I get out of here?" She asked.

"You'll wake up once I leave. Don't worry about it." He replied, and he turned and began walking away from her.

"But I don't even know your name!" She called again. The man stopped and turned to her again, a smile apparent in his wise eyes.

"You will My Dear, just give it time. I cannot tell you, for it must come to you on it's own." As he said this he vanished into their surrounding the way he had appeared and Quistis was left alone. There was a flash of light, brighter than Quistis had ever seen, and she opened her eyes again. She was surrounded by white and her vision was blurry.

"Oh great, I'm still here." She said groggily. She turned as she recognized the voice of her dear Matron, who had been waiting at the end of her bed conversing with Dr. Kadowaki.

"Oh Quistis dear, you're all right!" Said the woman Quistis had always known as her mother. Edea rushed over to the side of the bed and smiled at her. "We were so worried."

"What happened to you and how do you feel?" Asked Dr. Kadowaki not pausing before she rushed into her interrogation. That was a very long story, Quistis thought to herself. She smiled at Dr. Kadowaki and tried to figure out where she should begin.

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~*~Soul~*~: Well there ya go, hope I didn't confuse anyone, because that was long and kind of weird. I know some things changed from the game but this is fiction so I don't care. Anyway thanks for reading and please R&R if you can find time!

~*~Soul~*~