A/N: I don't own final fantasy 9, or anything else. Suing me would be pointless, because you would loose money... That would be all, feel free to skip my crapy poem. *points at poem*
Hatred and disgust,
the pain that I have seen.
They twirl within my soul,
and make me beg to breathe.
My bones are to old to hold up my skin,
and my life to long to live.
Call me wisdom,
call me will.
I am not vital,
I am not shell.
Nor hollowed husk by time,
nor demon so divine.
Call me what you will,
Call me what you shall.
I am no mimicking mime.
Blood flowed from his lips, softly he rubbed it with his white draped arm. A shadow in the distance caught his eye, and a pair shinning eyes to go with. But they vanished in the darkness, like all things did. Like his memories, and his life. So far in the past they rested. Back in a world that lived without him All alone, without lover or or siblings dear.
His feet carried him farther on his painful path. He'd find his way, for if he couldn't his other half might never live. He owed him everything....Everything.
"Maybe I'm just desperate. Maybe I'm just wishing, Maybe I'm just hoping...." The man muttered. Burning the vines away with fire that rushed forth from his hands. He turned for a moment to look at the floating golden hared youth behind him, and sighed. "Doesn't matter if I live. This world has no use for me now." He shook his head, and continued on, walking then burning, then walking again.
His path was slow, his world was green. And somewhere far below was a poison, and it could kill, with just the sweep of it's hand. The way behind him closed as quick as the path before him opened. In the end he would find his light at the end of the tunnel. Then he would go back, and let this world devour him.
"Tis the way it must be little brother." He said looking back on the golden one. "Don't worry about your Gaia, I'll take care of it for you." And the light finally flooded through the tunnel. "Goodbye Zidane."
Zidane floated on past him, and into the foot steps of another, golden haired creature much like him. She looked up almost startled. "Take care of him." He said, wiping more blood from his mouth.
She looked down at Zidane, and then back up. "Come with me Kuja. Garland told you his half truths, you know he did. They will understand in time." She spoke.
"Gaia has no time. Take care of him Mikoto, and do not tell him the truth. Let him be spared, let him forget it."
"He'll have his answers, I can't hold them from him." She spoke, her words becoming more and more emotional.
"Then don't tell him that I lived. His heart is too good, he thinks people can forget. So do you, people never forget..." He trailed off, and looked once more up towards the sky. "Tell the their leader, that the Mist does deteriorate, and to live they must devour. That is the answer they wanted."
"Who?" She asked tilling her head ever so slightly.
"My puppets." He said, then turned back to the vines and roots of the tree. He could hear her say something, but did not bother to listen. He no longer need the comforts of life. Garlands lies and truths no longer mattered. They made no difference to him now, not as he walked to the place he had never seen himself going. Zidane, Mikoto, not even Garland.... None of them need know, none of them need live life with this burden. It was the punishment for his final crimes.
Deep within the tree still lived. There the two planets converged and transformed into one another. Though Terra was now dead, a simple husk that would soon fall apart, the souls of Terra still lived. They lived now on the edge of Terra and the tree.
Limbo, so one might speak...
These souls must now leave behind their dreams of paradise on Terra behind. And start their work anew on Gaia. If they did dare to go that far, if they did triumph where he and Garland had failed them... Then Zidane might some day come again, to see and be in paradise that his soul had never gained on Terra.
Yet doubt of his works still rested... It festered within him. Terra still lay out among the stars. It was still possible for Terra to be revived, for the souls to grab up what was left... It this was so, then Terra would bring them paradise much sooner, even at its high cost.
Mikoto watched the bed stir. Then a form arise from it and promptly knock it's head on the bed above it. "Damn." A voice whispered out into the darkness and moonlight.
"Shouldn't have risen so quickly from your place." She said, monotone.
"Mikoto?" The voice asked out.
"That's correct... Zidane." She added in as an after thought.
"Where is Kuja? Have you seen him? What happened?" He asked hastily.
"Kuja is dead in the Iifa Tree." She responded with out feeling.
Zidane stayed silent. "He teleported you out and asked me to come for you. He is dead." She told him, she was as good a half-truth teller as Garland.
"Oh..." He hissed out as he fell back into the bed. "I guess I should have known... It's just that I was so sure that Garland was lying..."
"Garland has told many lies. What he told to Kuja was the truth." She answered.
"Alright..." He looked out the window next to the bed. "I'm guessing that I'm in the Black Mage Village...?"
"I brought you here. It was the closest place by flying in the invincible." She paused, but before Zidane could place in his own words. "Several of us walked there to retrieve it before the tree devoured it. While there Kuja contacted me." She saw Zidane's hair glint a little, it told her that he was nodding. "I shall leave you know, with your thoughts." She stood, not moving the chair behind her, and left the room. A few boards creaking after her.
Zidane knew that she as well as Kuja could read him like a book. It was one of the reasons he really hadn't had much luck in pounding Kuja into the grounds like he had intended to. He should ask Mikoto some time to teach him how to do that. Read minds and talk to other genomes...
His entire body felt like it had been smashed. Which it had of course... His head felt groggy, a little disconnected from his body, so to speak. He thought about Dagger, then about her song. And for some odd reason it helped to place his thoughts away. It let him sleep...
His dream was a nightmare. With monsters and sirens calling out in the sounds he had heard when he had fought Necron. The sound of thousands of tormented souls screaming out. One of the screamers stepped out, Dagger, and she started to hum to the melody. Then the screaming stopped, and they too started to sign.
And then next thing he knew, she was standing before him. Saying words over and over again... Promise me... Promise me...
But instead of promising her he was screaming, and screaming no... He glared at her and pushed her out of his way.
Without warning the world around him changed, and he was riding a dragon out of Burmecia, he was enslaving Bahamut with the Invincible and turning it on Dagger's mother. He was summoning Bahumut on Alexandria. He was telling the Black Mages that there was no way to continue their lifespan... It was he who was the villain, and Kuja the hero... Just as it could have been, in some other place where the what if's became real.
His eyes popped open and he turned onto his side. Wondering why he had ever dreamt such things...
Mikoto sat back in the newly made bar. It was slowly becoming her favorite place. She had her own little spot, right up against a window which looked out on the near by stream. She could only just hear the trickling water over the chatter of the bar. It was nice here.
She was still wondering how to break the news to the Black Mages. But first she need someone to decrypt the message. Kuja was rather confusing, even when he wasn't trying to be. Looking up she waved at Mr. 288, the most intelligent mage here, and possibly the only one she could truly stand.
He sat down across from her and nodded. "You asked me to meet you Mikoto." A statement not a question.
"When I collected Zidane from the Iifa Tree, he was not alone.... Kuja had been with him, he told me something that I think you will find quite interesting." She said.
"...Kuja..." The mage said, it was still rather odd for her to believe that Kuja had created all of these mages. "What did he say?"
"He told me that if you want to survive, you must devour? That the mist deteriorates... I do not know if this gives you any hint as to what is going on..." She stopped, allowing the mage to ponder this.
"I do know what he was talking about... Odd how things always turn for the worst..." He said looking at his staff, letting it twirl in his fingers.
"Might you elaborate?"
"The Mist... It's the reason we stop. So I suspected, Kuja has just conformed my suspicions. It slowly leaves us, it deteriorates and when to much of it is gone, we stop." He let out a sigh.
"So it would mean that you must devour Mist?" She asked.
"So it would seem... However that would entail that the Iifa Tree was still giving off Mist.... That is indeed impossible, and since Mist is the drags of souls... How many of us would we willing to start eating a once living soul, simply to live?" He shook his head. "I will consider this, however Mikoto if that is the only way, I would rather stop."
"What about preventing the Mist from deteriorating?" She asked firmly.
"I have no knowledge on how one might do that..." He stood. "I am still willing to go with you to the Desert Palace when Zidane recovers... Perhaps one of his old records might help with our problem." With that he nodded and left.
He never has any hope... Must have been some very depressed soul drags that went into him. Mikoto thought, before taking another sip of the water before her, and asking for a glass to take to Zidane.
A/N: Okay, first chapter on this, please review and tell me what you think! See any mistakes, tell me about them, I'm the worst at checking my fics -.- In any case.... Yay. ^.^ Don't have anything else to say.... oh wait! I'll have chappie two for Isidore and Mr. 485 up by the end of this week! So enjoy!!!
Email me- Sors_x@yahoo.com