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"Anywhere" -- Chapter 13: Still Frame
By The Last Princess of Hyrule
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"So lost, I'm just as lost as you,
Oh well, what am I going to do?
I'm afraid I'm falling farther away,
From where I want to be,
Please help me 'cause I'm breaking down,
This picture's frozen and I can't get out,
Please help me 'cause I'm breaking down,
This picture's frozen and I can't get out of here . . ."
-Trapt, "Still Frame"
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There is a depth of sleep that reaches beyond the level of dreams; a place where it seems you aren't breathing, or even living anymore. In this sleep, death wraps around you like a warm blanket and takes you gently, rather than when it is an icy river tearing you away from the world when you're awake. Hitomi slept here, in this deep peace that was second only to death, and only death itself could bring her out.
"Hitomi . . ."
Or perhaps not death, but a spirit from that place. The word it spoke rippled through Hitomi's mind like a light summer breeze--one swift breath and it was gone.
"Hitomi . . . Wake up, dear Hitomi . . ."
The gentle voice pulled Hitomi up, up through the deep folds of death-like sleep until she was almost awake. Her consciousness was in a place in her mind where there was no difference between imaginary and reality. It was here that Yuri spoke to her granddaughter.
"Hitomi . . ." Yuri called. "I'm so glad I was able to find your spirit. This world hasn't been kind to you, has it? The weight of your fate strains your very soul. If only you could stay here and rest, with only this man who cares about you so much and loves you so well. If you hadn't found this peace, even though you have only been here such a short time, you would have been too far gone for me to reach."
She sighed and her words became tired and regretful. "I wish I could let you stay like this until you have fully recovered, but the time has come for you to fulfill your destiny. I'm afraid I must bring you back . Wake up, dear Hitomi, wake up . . ."
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"Girl . . ." someone hissed through the cell bars. "Girl, wake up . . ."
Slowly, Hitomi forced herself to open her eyes, though they felt leaden, and her only desire was to sleep for eternity. At first, the world was distorted and out of focus, but she could make out the vague shape of a person in red outside of the cell. She blinked her eyes several times, and everything came into focus. The person standing there was not who she expected. Dilandau . . . ?
"Come on, Girl, wake up," he called quietly, looking around as he did. "I can't wait around here all day."
She felt Folken stir and saw him open his eyes. He noticed Dilandau as Hitomi got up.
"Finally," said Dilandau with an exasperated sigh. "Get over here and I'll let you out."
"You're here to let us go?" she asked.
"Yes, yes," he insisted impatiently. "Now, come on."
Hitomi hesitated and turned back to Folken, who was adjusting his shirt and said nothing. His black wings had faded away, leaving no trace of their existence except for the feathers she still held in her hand. Her fingers closed around them and Hitomi turned back to Dilandau.
"Why are you doing this?"
He shoved the key in the lock and turned it. "It was just some stupid thing Celena told me. Can we get going?"
"Celena?"
"Long story, no time to explain." The lock made a clunking sound and fell open. Dilandau pulled it off and swung open the door.
"How can we trust you?" asked Folken.
Dilandau shrugged. "I wouldn't know. That's all up to you. But I wouldn't think too hard about it. Either I'm lying or I'm not, and either way it gets you out of the cell."
"You should trust him, Hitomi."
Dilandau noticed Hitomi's expression fill with shock. He gave her a suspicious look, but refrained from comment.
Is someone there? She asked herself, trying by the only means she knew to reach someone she thought might be in her mind. Are you the one who spoke to me before, when I was in Tenue?
"No. You know me, but I'm not who you think I am." There was a smile to the voice's words, and their tone was comforting. "It was Celena you heard in Egzardia. My name is Yuri."
"Hurry up!" Dilandau's voice startled Hitomi back to reality. He and Folken were outside the cell waiting for her. "They're going to be after you as soon as they find out you're gone. We shouldn't hang around."
Hitomi came out glaring. "My name's not Girl, it's Hitomi. And I'm not some object of power you can control. Tricking me and taking me captive won't get you anywhere."
"No shit," said Dilandau. "I don't plan to."
She stroked the feathers distractedly with her thumb. "All right. Let's go."
Dilandau pulled the keys out of the lock and started down the corridor without pausing to see that they followed. Folken waited, touching Hitomi's shoulder. "Is something wrong?"
She shook her head. "I'm fine. Just . . ."
"Don't worry too much about him," Folken said reassuringly. "You said yourself you wouldn't be controlled."
"Yes, dear Hitomi, have faith in yourself," Yuri chimed as they turned down the hall to follow Dilandau.
You sound really familiar, Hitomi observed. Have we met?
Suddenly, an image appeared before her that could have been a mirror. It was as if Hitomi was looking at herself, or perhaps the picture her mother had shown Hitomi of her grandmother at age fifteen. Mrs. Kanzaki's mother as a teenager had the same green eyes as Hitomi now, the same brown hair but in braids, the same height, build, and even the same smile. Were it not for fifty years between them, the two could have been twins.
Hitomi stopped. Grandma . . . ?
The apparition smiled.
Folken noticed Hitomi's absence and turned back. "Hitomi?" Yuri's image vanished as he spoke. Hitomi shook her head and hurried to catch up with him. "What happened?"
"I saw something just now--my grandmother when she was my age. She's speaking to me."
"Saying what?"
"I'm trying to tell you something important about your fate," said Yuri.
"Something about my fate," Hitomi repeated.
"Stop the man with the silver hair. You need his help."
"Dilandau, wait!" Hitomi suddenly called ahead of her. She jogged forward, not sure he heard her--she could no longer see him up ahead. Confused, Folken followed.
Hitomi turned a corner and found Dilandau waiting for her. "Try to keep it quiet," he snapped. "Just because we haven't run into any soldiers doesn't mean we won't." He turned to continue on, but Hitomi stopped him.
"Wait. Tell me why you let us free."
"Can't we talk about this later?"
"No, now."
Dilandau sighed. "Like I said, it was just something Celena told me that made me change my mind. She said no one's totally good or evil, because at least one time in your life, you're both. It was a stupid idea to let you be captured in the first place. Besides, I realized it wasn't going to do any of us any good." He smiled, no longer noticing Hitomi or Folken. "Besides, Celena wants me to be a better person and I . . . I kind of want that too. She makes me want to be better than I am."
"Young people in love are so adorable," Yuri said wistfully. "When they're thinking about their special someone, the whole world seems to disappear."
"Who is this Celena?" asked Hitomi.
Dilandau snapped back to reality at the sound of her voice, and his smile vanished. "She's . . . she's an Asturian who came to Zaibach about ten years ago. She's a guymelef pilot on the Delate."
"Celena was kidnapped as a child and sold off to be experimented on by the Zaibach Sorcerers. They used a mix of science and madness to alter her fate. Dilandau isn't completely real. He was created by the Sorcerers during these fate alteration experiments to change the course of Celena's life. Dilandau and Celena are separate souls, but they're both trapped in the same body."
They're what? asked Hitomi in astonishment. How do you know? How is that even possible?
"I'm not sure how it works," said Yuri, "but I know it does. I know because I can read some of Dilandau's thoughts, just like I can read yours. He and Celena seem to be able to use a form of telepathy to speak to each other, like how we are, but slightly different. Their exchange is more like a cross of telepathy and internal thought--only the two of them are able to hear it."
Hitomi looked confused. Why do I need Dilandau's help? What exactly is happening with my fate?
"It is time for you to meet the man who is trying to control Gaea's fate."
I already have. Hitomi shuddered.
"I know, but now you must face him to stop the fate alterations at all costs. I know how much of a burden this is for you, my dear Hitomi, but it's the reason you were brought to this planet," Yuri explained.
And what about Dilandau?
"If you are successful against the emperor, all the unnatural fates on Gaea will cease to exist, including Dilandau. Had Celena's consciousness never awakened in him and they hadn't grown together the way they have, death would be nothing to him. You cannot deny him, nor anyone else who has been tainted by Zaibach's meddling, the chance to live. You must find a way to preserve their lives from the unraveling of fate."
"Hitomi?"
Someone outside her mind calling her name brought Hitomi's focus back to Folken and Dilandau.
"I . . . I have to face Dornkirk . . . and reset all the fate alterations Zaibach has made." Her face was pale, and the thought of seeing the emperor again made her stomach twist up inside. She swallowed and asked, "Where is he?"
"About five floors up and quite a ways that way." Dilandau pointed ahead. "I'll lead you." They started off.
As they walked, Hitomi's focus returned to her grandmother. What am I going to have to do?
"The only way to disrupt the flow of fate is with the flow of Time," said Yuri.
How? Hitomi asked.
"You've noticed your ability to call souls of the dead back to life for a short period of time, right?"
Hitomi nodded, even though Yuri couldn't see it. Yeah.
"Use that power to call forth those whose deaths were caused by or resulted from some aspect of the fate alterations. The time lines of their lives were disrupted, so the flow of time that it linked to them is also disrupted. Fate can only continue as long as Time remains steady for it. When the souls converge upon the Fate Alteration Engine, these broken time lines will cause it to overload and malfunction. That will set everything back to normal."
How can you be so sure?
"I have watched the happenings in Zaibach since I first learned to see Gaea through the pendant's power." Yuri sounded almost smug. "I know more about fate alteration than even the emperor himself."
Hitomi touched her pendant. You could see Gaea through this?
"It holds many powers, even some I still don't completely understand," Yuri confessed. "But it lent me the ability to understand fate and see into the future." She laughed. "Don't be asking me to tell you what happens to you. Once I tell you your fate, a new one will take its place, and that new one will most likely turn out to be worse than the first."
Hitomi frowned. How is your power any different from using Tarot cards to tell the future? Aren't they the same thing? Any future I've foretold has always come true no matter who I told it to.
Yuri smiled. "That's a very good question. Tarot cards only give you symbols of a future, which you must then try to decode them in order to understand what will happen. Most Tarot readers will make mistakes in their readings, and foretell something that won't actually come to pass. I see futures like they were movie reels.
"Tarot readings are really only speculation," she went on. "No matter how good you are at it, you can never be completely sure the futures you foretell will come true. Sometimes, even though you know exactly what will happen in the future, fate will alter it so that something different comes to pass. I don't know exactly why this happens. I think fate just has a twisted sense of humor."
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Yuri didn't speak again until they arrived at Dornkirk's chamber. It was designed like a giant observatory, but many times larger to scale. It looked empty when they entered. The room was dark, quiet, and still. Massive objects rose up from the sea of shadows--cold, angular forms whose purposes Hitomi did not want to know. She tried to ignore them.
As they walked deeper into the room, a gust of foul air made Hitomi cough and shiver, even though she was still wearing Folken's black cloak. Above her, the ceiling had a large rectangular viewing window cut in it that was always open, exposing the chronically overcast sky and letting in the frigid outdoor air.
Hitomi wrinkled her nose in disgust. "It smells awful in here. Like some creature died somewhere in here months ago and no one has gotten rid of it," she whispered to Folken, trying to distract herself from the knot of fear that had settled in her stomach and only seemed to be getting bigger as destiny loomed over them.
He said nothing. The expression on his face told her that this was the last place on Gaea he wanted to be, and even less wanted to talk about.
"Is this really where we're going to find the emperor?" she asked.
Suddenly the room flooded with synthetic yellow light, and Hitomi shrieked. Steam whooshed up from several generators as they turned on and started to screech and rumble. A giant object beside her that Hitomi had mistaken for a telescope suddenly lit up and began to spin. At its eyepiece was a mountainous steel machine that encased the body of a frail old man. But even under the lengths of gray hair and brittle features, Hitomi could see that he, like King Ezara, was a man of great power and influence.
Emperor Dornkirk looked down on the three startled expressions below him. "So, the Girl from the Mystic Moon appears before me again. I have been waiting for you." He noticed the distress that filled Hitomi's visage. "Yes, I foresaw that you would arrive here with a Dragon, but not the Dragon I was expecting."
Trying to ignore the emperor's words, Hitomi took off her pendant and held it out in front of her. She just wanted her miserable task to be over as quickly as possible. She closed her eyes and prepared to call to the dead, but Dornkirk's low, cold laugh stopped her and she opened her eyes.
"You're mistaken if you think you can destroy me with that," he said with complete confidence. "You will not be able to undo all the altered fates without destroying everything they've affected. Your hands are already stained with the deaths of hundreds of innocents in Asturia. Will you wash them again in blood with the lives of all Gaea?" Even from far away, she saw the knowing glare in his eyes. "For all of Gaea has been affected by altered fate."
Hitomi's heart began to race, remembering the desecration of Palas. She couldn't let her power do that to the rest of Gaea. Why did the balance of so many lives have to be placed in her hands? She wasn't capable of protecting them all. If she had that kind of power, no one would have died in the attack on Palas, and she wouldn't have ended up at the heart of Zaibach faced with such a challenge.
"A single emotion, such as fear, can tip the passage of fate," said Dornkirk.
A single emotion . . . She looked beside her at Folken, who was watching the emperor with a cold glare. A single emotion was the difference between acting on this chance to rid Gaea of controlled fate, and cowering in fear at the possibility of letting more people die. Yet, while fear drained away her confidence, as she watched Folken, somehow her love for him restored it. Memories of her time with him, though each so short and bittersweet, resonated in her heart and gave her a source of strength.
"Fear can make you forget everything you're trying to do," Hitomi found herself saying, "but love can help you remember."
Dornkirk's mouth stretched in a wicked grin, and his deep, rumbling laugh turned into an echoing thunder. "The gravity of love is more a source of pain for you than strength, isn't it? You were right to believe you would be the one to kill your Dragon, because if you try to reset fate, you will."
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"That's a lie," Folken shouted with an intensity he had never before expressed. "That's a lie and you can't make her believe it's true!"
"I think she already does."
Folken turned back to Hitomi. The confidence burning in her eyes only a moment before had vanished without a trace, leaving them wide and full of fear. One hand covered her mouth and the other clenched her pendant in a white shaking fist. Her entire body was trembling.
"Hitomi!"
"It isn't possible . . ." she whispered, her haunting eyes staring right through him. "How could he possibly know . . . ?"
"Hitomi, it isn't true." Folken grabbed her shoulders, but she didn't even blink. "You know that isn't going to happen. You aren't going to kill anyone! Hitomi! Hitomi, snap out of it!"
Her terrified face was frozen.
"Hitomi!" Tears came to his eyes. "Hitomi!"
"Can't you see she's fading away?" asked Dornkirk in a mock sympathetic tone. "You were never going to be able to protect her. It is not your path in life to be helping our enemies." He sneered. "Or loving them for that matter."
"My fate isn't restricted to Zaibach." Folken closed his eyes against the tears and slowly turned around. "Fate is not meant to be controlled."
"Ah, that is where you are wrong," said the emperor in a wise tone Folken saw through instantly. "Everything that exists in the world is meant to be ruled by something more powerful than it, whether that thing is simply another creature, or fate itself. While I control fate, I am the most powerful being of all."
"That's ridiculous." The silvery, scorning voice drew their attentions to Dilandau, who had been silent up until that moment.
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Dilandau's gaze was locked on the floor, and his head bowed. In his right hand he had drawn his sword, and held it out before him with the point brushing the ground.
"There isn't any way a mortal person can possibly control something that goes on forever," said Dilandau. "As soon as you die, fate will go back to the way it's supposed to be."
"No mortal, yes," Dornkirk agreed. "But I am no mortal man. I have lived for hundreds of years, seen countless eras rise and fall on this planet, all long past a man's normal lifespan. I am immortal."
Dilandau looked up and met the emperor's gaze with fire in his eyes. "Like a god?" He spat out the words with disgust.
"Yes. Gods create worlds, build civilizations, and give life and religion to the populace. I raised this country of Zaibach out of the mud of Gaea's neglect and gave its people order. I taught them about money, mercantilism, science, and agriculture. I taught them to follow me, and to believe in everything I said. I have done the same as any god ever did, so therefore I must be a god."
The blade twitched in Dilandau's hand. "Since when does that allow you to mess with someone else's life?" He narrowed his burning glare.
"That is a god's right."
That was when Dilandau heard Celena's voice, and it rang louder in his mind than ever before. /No! Dilandau, don't! Don't kill him!/
/./Give me one good reason././
/I can't let you take the risk and die! If you're gone, then I'll be alone, and by all that I love, I can't stand to be alone!/
/./But if I kill him, you'll be safe././ Dilandau argued. /./Would you just let me protect you?/./
/No! For once, would you listen to me?! Save yourself and don't fight him! Drop your sword!/ She broke into tears, her wailing resonating through his mind. /Please, Dilandau, drop it!/
A flash of artificial light reflected across the blade as it clattered to the floor with a metallic clang. Dilandau fell to his knees beside it, raking his fingers through his hair and yanking off his gold circlet. The circlet was a sign of his military status, his crown of achievement and recognition in the Zaibach army that he had worked so hard to attain. In disgust, he threw it as far away as he could, and it flew into a patch of shadows where he couldn't see it fall.
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"So another falls," said Dornkirk, his hollow eyes watching Dilandau with disdain. "Unable to bear the load of his fate. You, Folken, have never been one to shy away from yours. That is why I trusted you. You and I are alike."
Folken shook his head, scowling. "You're wrong. We have nothing in common. I know where I stand when it comes to my place in fate's plan, but you don't accept yours."
"No, I understand my place very well. I shall rule over fate, and everything in existence will conform to my will."
Folken knelt beside Dilandau and reached for the sword. "You say that everything is ruled by something more powerful. After all, that is how the world works." His fingers closed around the cold hilt and he stood up. "So what rules over you?"
The hint of mockery that had been ever-present in Dornkirk's words vanished. "Nothing."
Folken closed his eyes, and drew in a breath of stagnant air that chilled his lungs. "This is why Gaea is doomed never to come to peace. We're cursed forever by the desire to control that which we do not or should not control. This is why there is fate--to keep the balance of control from shifting too much or too little in one being's favor. But when that balance falls apart, the world loses its order."
"Then I will alter fate to recreate the lost order," said Dornkirk. "You underestimate my abilities, Folken."
Folken finally looked up. "No, you overestimate them. There is something stronger than fate. You know what it is--I learned it from you."
"Time." Dornkirk's eyes narrowed, and his lips all but disappeared in a frown. "The essence of Time controls the flow of fate, and a broken time line disrupts fate's current."
Folken unclasped his shirt and let it fall around his waist. In a mist of feathers, his crumpled black wings grew from his shoulder blades, and with visible effort, he opened them to their full length.
"A person's mortal fate is one that cannot be changed or escaped," Dornkirk continued, "but it is also one impossible to foretell. It is fate that determines one's end, but if a life is subject to an alteration of fate, then an alternate end will fall into place. In either case, that end will only be recognized when it is upon you."
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"An alteration of fate . . ."
The words resonated in Hitomi's mind.
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Folken's eyes narrowed, and he held out his sword toward the emperor. The thought of death, of all those who had died in Fanelia, Asturia, and all over Gaea because of Dornkirk's altered fate, filled the cold hollows of his heart with vengeance. Vengeance for Hitomi, whose life was constant suffering because of the changed fates, and whose love he wished to fill those hollows if he could. For all those his association with Dornkirk had slain before their time. For Gaea. He would give his life so no more would lose theirs.
"For everyone your unnatural fate has killed, you will recognize your mortal end."
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"Time controls the flow of fate. . ."
Hitomi heard Folken's heart thump.
"It is fate that determines one's end . . ."
She blinked and saw the world again through living, conscious eyes, instead of the statue fear had frozen her into.
"But it is also one impossible to foretell . . ."
"Hitomi . . ." whispered the chill of death. "Hitomi . . ."
"Fate is not meant to be controlled . . ."
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The taste of revenge would be sweet, as sweet as Hitomi's lips, and Folken was destined to taste the luscious nectar of one, but never the other.
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"I want to say it will turn out all right . . . because I love you too . . ."
"I love you . . ." Hitomi whispered. "I love you . . ."
High in the dark sky above the observatory chamber, the clouds began to shift and rumble, crashing over each other in a torrential commotion. Beams of solid, dazzling sunlight shot through them, as if heaven's archers were firing their arrows upon the empire. In her forgotten left hand, as Folken leapt into the air with the intent to strike down the emperor, the blood red stone of her pendant blazed into life with such a blinding flash as Zaibach hadn't seen since the first dawn of Dornkirk's coming.
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"We're leaving here tonight,
There's need to tell anyone,
They'd only hold us down . . ."
-Evanescence, "Anywhere"
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TO BE CONTINUED . . .
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