PART XXVIII

"Do you ever think it'll be over?"

"What?"

"You know, fighting, war, that stuff."

"Hope not. I'll be out of a job."

"You know what I mean. Seriously."

"Nah, they'll always be something. Someone."

"So what does that mean?
"Take the Shadow Lord. We beat him down, but that didn't stop violence. Something'll crop up again."
"Guess you're right."

These thoughts were as far from Voldos's mind as they could possibly be. He was slumped against the fountain in Bastok. Vivli was sat on it, swinging her legs around.

"So, they give you anything?" Voldos asked. He himself was admiring his shiny silver and blue armour, the best available, presented to him by the four nations.

"Taught me tons of new spells." Vivli said cheerfully. "Got instructed by the best mages in the land!"

"Ha, spells are no match for my sword!" Voldos cried, pulling a long blade off his back. "It's so light, even you could lift it." Vivli didn't laugh. "Here, feel." He went to pass her the sword. She bolted to her feet.

"I'm not touching that thing!" She yelled.

"Oh yeah, sorry. Forgot." Voldos muttered. "So what spells did you learn?"

"Want a demonstration?" She offered.

"Sure. Show me. I'll-" Voldos was cut off.

"But it doesn't make sense!" Bootus boomed to Zinkata as the two walked over. Zinkata also was in shiny new armour, the best available. Bootus even had a new, thick gi, and the very latest in weapon technology for his claws.

"You really have issues with time travel. You know that?" The ex-thief told the mighty galka.

"I don't understand. If we killed Chaos in the past, how did anything he did in the future stay true?" Bootus asked.

"Bootus, you idiot!" Vivli laughed, walking over. "It's really simple."

"Go on then. Explain." Bootus confidently folded his arms.

"We killed Chaos from the future who had gone into the past, as opposed to killing past Chaos before he could reach the future. Because we killed the future Chaos in the past his actions in the future remained true even though he died a million years before said actions occurred because he had already done them." Vivli took in a deep breath, and Bootus looked blank.

"What?" He muttered.

"What?" Voldos muttered.

"What?" Zinkata muttered.

"It makes sense!" Vivli yelled.

"Look." Bootus said. "The way I see it, we killed Chaos in the past. He's dead in the past. We exist in the future. Since he died in the past, nothing that he did in the future could have happened."

"I'm not going to argue this." Vivli replied, her hands on her hips. "I'm not. I know I'm right."

"Ha, the only reason you're backing down is because you know you can't win." Bootus taunted her.

"Voldos?" Vivli asked. "Watch this." She began to cast something. "Silence!"

Bootus moved his mouth, but no words came out. Vivli smiled.

"Wow." Voldos said in awe. "That may be the greatest spell of all time."

"Aren't more important questions things like 'how did we get back to the future'?" Zinkata inquired.

"Presumably when the crystals shattered, the spirits of the Light Warriors helped us forwards." Vivli shrugged.

"Does it really matter?" Voldos asked. Bootus mouthed something, but nobody could hear him.

"No. I guess it doesn't." Vivli decided.

"All that matters is the world is safe. Hell, we did it. We saved the world." Zinkata paused. "Try that line to pick up chicks, Voldos."
"Lost the crystal shards though." Voldos said sadly. "Without them, we can't prove we're the Light Warriors. Nobody knows any better. All they know is four adventurers saved the world."

"The real shame is that we're back to how everything was." Vivli grumbled.

"Isn't that what we were trying to do?" Zinkata asked.

"Yeah, but I was hoping the four nations would stay united. But as soon as the battle was over, they went straight back to being separated." The tiny mithra looked to the floor.

"Hey, all that matters is that the world is safe. Life will go on, however that happens." Zinkata explained.

"For another nine million years or so at least." Bootus added with a grin. "Not nearly long enough to get all the insults in I want to."

"We've been sat here talking for far too long." Voldos pointed out.

"That's because we have nothing left to do." Zinkata told him. "We're done. Spent. The world is safe and we're heroes. What do you do after saving the world?"

"Go to the tavern?" Suggested the elvaan.

Very little had changed. Zinkata was sat in the corner, playing his old knife game. His excuse was 'saving the world doesn't pay for new equipment', which was a blatant lie anyway. He had literally been rewarded the new equipment.

"200 gil you can't do it for thirty seconds." A stranger said.

"You're on." Zinkata beamed a smile, and started hammering away with his knife. The bartender hated when Zinkata did this game, as it left knife marks all over his table (and occasionally some blood), but had long ago given up on trying to replace the table, because it always ended up in the same state as the one before. He could throw Zinkata out of course, but the gigantic sword on his back discouraged this.

Bootus was sipping his drink. Vivli had her head down on the bar, asleep. She wasn't actually drunk. She hadn't touched a glass. She was just exhausted from the events of the last few weeks and couldn't keep it up anymore. Bootus smiled to himself.

"Hey, Bootus!" Voldos cried. The galka spun around. Voldos had his arm around a cute blonde girl, a hume. Bootus's eyes went wide with shock. "Meet Vixen."

"Whu? You? No. Can't." Bootus couldn't quite form coherent sentences.

"Apparently she really finds tall dark elvaans attractive." Voldos said with a smile. Vixen giggled. Bootus was stunned in disbelief.

"How did you do that? You couldn't pull a girl to save your life!" The galka exclaimed.

"Hey, she came onto me." Voldos said with a smug smile. "Told you no girl could resist me." He kissed her, and the two wondered off, leaving a stunned Bootus to his drink.

Hours passed as they had a habit of doing. Vivli woke and left. She re-entered the tavern with her satchel. Zinkata looked up.

"Why've you got that?" He asked.

"I'm going on a trip." She said. "I've decided."

"Going where?" Zinkata cried, surprised.

"There's still a lot unanswered." Vivli explained. "I mean, about me. How did the monastery know who I really was? Why did I have the crystal shard in the first place? I want to know."

"How do you intend to find out?" Zinkata asked.

"Well, I figure I need to find my parents." Vivli told the ex-thief.

"Any idea where you're going to start?" He asked her.

"I was thinking of looking in Windurst, and then moving on to Kazham if I can't find anything there." Vivli gave in answer.

"Going to Windurst, eh?" Zinkata muttered. Vivli nodded. "Long journey. Couldn't let you go on your own." A smile crept across Vivli's face. "Bootus!" Zinkata boomed. The galka thundered over. "Grab your stuff. We're going on another journey."

"What? Where?" The galka demanded.

"Windurst. Then onwards. We're looking for Viv's parents." He told Bootus.

"So, I can stay here, or go with you?" Bootus pondered his choices. "You honestly expect me to miss more opportunities to mock Vivli? I'm in!"

"I don't think that's the best reason ever." Vivli said to herself. Voldos walked past them with Vixen.

"Hey, guys, I'm going back to my mog house." He gave a wink.

"No you ain't." Bootus pulled the elvaan over by the ear. "We're going to Windurst."

"What?" Voldos exclaimed. "But-? You can't! I-"

"Oh, calm down." Vivli sighed. "She'll still be here when you get back." Voldos looked as if he was going to cry as they dragged him out of the tavern, and he yelled desperate goodbyes and proclamations of love to Vixen.

"How could you do that to me?" He whimpered.

"Settle down." Vivli told him. "We're headed to Windurst, then on to Kazham, most probably. You know Kazham?"

"I've heard of it." Voldos confirmed miserably.
"It's a small jungle paradise populated by mithra." Vivli felt dirty for saying this, but knew it was the only way to cheer him up. "It's hot there, so nobody wears that much. That means it's a small town populated by hundreds of scantily clad cat girls." Voldos pondered this for a moment.

"Then what are we waiting for?" He asked. "Adventure awaits!"

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Well, that's it. The end. If you've read this far, there's a lot I need to point out. Firstly, thanks. If you're reading this, then thanks for making it this far. I know it's ridiculously long, so I greatly appreciate you taking the time to read it. If you've made it this far, and not left a review, please do. I figure if you've spent hours reading, what's an extra few minutes to let me know what you think? I'd greatly appreciate it. Although the story itself is finished, if you have any recommendations that I agree with and can do, I will go back and change the story to try and make it better.

Right, there are a few obvious thanks I need to say for getting this written. Firstly, you. Yes you. Reading these words. If you're reading this, then thank you for taking such an interest. I'll be even more thankful if you leave a review. Secondly, James Boote. Better known as Bootus. Or Vahlahn, as he's known on this site. He suggested a writing competition, and the FFXI Chronicles are a direct result of that. His story, "Of Fantasies", is also on this site, and currently much shorter. He kept to writing a chapter a week you see. I didn't. Of Fantasies is set after the heroes have disbanded, and rejoined, so I suppose you could look on it as a sequel to this if you really want to read more adventurers of the team. (There is also an additional member, but you can just pretend he joined after these adventures). Thirdly, Peter Garraghan (aka: Zinkata) who read through every chapter I wrote and gave me lots of advice and criticism to improve it. Fourthly, The Frog Killer for some of the most dedicated reading and reviewing I've ever seen. He really encouraged me to finish this story and keep writing. I originally uploaded it as an experiment, and never really knew whether I'd even finish it. His encouragement really helped me write, so thanks a million.

Speaking of The Frog Killer, the character of Angel belongs to him and comes from his story "The Angel Chronicles". Go read it.

Any other character included in this story, other than the main four, are characters I made up. If you've seen a character with the same name in FFXI, then it's a coincidence. Except with Alexandria. A random white mage who saved us once when Banshee's annihilated us. How do I repay her? Make her a traitorous character who betrays everyone. If you ever read this, sorry about that!

Whew, this is going on. Chaos. Light Warriors. Confused? The plot involving the Light Warriors, Chaos, Gaia and so on comes from the original FF1. Even any dialogue you see in a flashback to that time comes from the villains comes from FF1 also (I am not to blame for lines such as "I, Garland, will knock you all down"). I interjected my own dialogue between the speeches of the bad guys to come from the Light Warriors. Hopefully, if you are unfamiliar with FF1, it didn't hamper your enjoyment of the story too much.

Fake swear words? Yeah, you may be wondering why I did that. To be honest, I find swear words too modern in a fantasy story, and they usually pull me out of it. But to be unable to have characters curse is a pain in the ass, so I used 'fake' swear words. Most stem from television shows. 'Frack' and 'felgercarb' both come from the old seventies sci fi show Battlestar Galactica, 'gorram' from Firefly (I believe it's 'goddam' in Chinese, but I'm not sure), and 'spoony' is a reference to FF4's classic line "You spoony bard!".

Some people notice the lack of romance. There are three reasons for this. One, Vivli, Zinkata, Bootus and Voldos are real people, and there is definitely NO romance there (except the odd hug Bootus gives Voldos. Don't ask). Secondly, I cannot write romance to save my life. Thirdly, Of Fantasies does do the romance plot line, so this doesn't intrude on it by giving it an opposite situation. So, if you want to see the characters being romantic, you can read Of Fantasies. Romance in that is written a lot better than I ever could anyway.

Finally, if you enjoyed this and feel there's a lack to read, don't worry. I've dedicated at least an hour every day for the past couple of weeks to write a chapter, and now there is that void, I am very doubtful I'll stop writing. Keep an eye out. I have plans for a sequel. It will probably be a lot shorter, and less epic in scope, dealing with the quest outlined at the end and the result thereof. I can't guarantee I'll write it, because in the past all my attempts to write sequels have sucked. But keep an eye out, might even be up tomorrow if I have that void and feel like starting to write.

And now, of course, the usual copyright issues. All Final Fantasy copyright belongs to Square-enix. I'll take anything else I can get that's not copyrighted by somebody else.

THANKS FOR READING!