"The Vandole soon should fall! We leave our last hope in the cave of the waterfalls. Glory to the Vandole and to our child of hope!"
Inscription on a tablet inside the Tower of Dime - Final Fantasy Adventure
"Many years ago Dark Lord found a baby in a cave near the waterfalls, that was Julius."
Little boy in town - Final Fantasy Adventure
"Julius reminds me of someone, he is the spitting image of a deceased hero from Lorimar. His speech and manor are different but he is otherwise an exact duplicate.
Maid Marley - Sword of Mana
If anyone cares...."Bigieu" comes from the word "Biguu" which means beautiful beast. Isabella/Bigieu turns into a cat in battle.
I realize I may be way out in left field with my cross overs here, oh well. It's only a game.
Granz Castle
Stroud and Isabella walked up the dirt pathway to the castle. You could hear the water from the falls gushing down from the rocks and hitting the beautiful green terrain below. As they walked past the falls, Isabella could feel the mists from the water hitting her face and she longed to stop by the fence and look over the edge - but not now, she didn't want to interfere with Stroud's agenda. She could feel his tension and the pain he must be holding inside. They approached the doorway and a soldier opened the entry for them. Inside, they were greeted by Maid Marley, Dark Lord's lady in waiting. He nodded to her and in a stern voice gave her orders.
"This is our guest Isabella, give her a room please, I do not wish to be bothered right now."
"Yes Dark Lord." Marley replied dutifully.
Stroud stormed off, up the grand staircase, to his room. In the distance you could hear the door slam.
"Miss Isabella, so good to see you again." Marley greeted her.
"And I you, yes it has been awhile." Isabella said gently brushing her shoulder with a smile.
"Well then, you must be tired, I'll set you up for the night. I reckon you already know your way around so feel free to have a look, but I would advise you to stay away from Dark Lord, he is obviously in one of his moods." Marley suggested.
"His mother just passed away, I am worried for him." Isabella said distraught fully.
"Medusa? Why, Lady Medusa died years ago. You must be mistaken." Marley said.
"No. I thought she was dead too, but apparently she was living with her elder son in Jadd, safely hidden." Isabella said.
"Lord Devius, he gives me the creeps. Hmmm. He was quite the character as a child. Well I guess then it was possible she was alive, but to this world she was dead." Marley said as she analyzed the facts.
Marley escorted Isabella through the halls to the guest rooms. They entered one of the rooms and Maley lit the candles. It was a bit cold so she started up the fireplace as well to warm it up. Once the fire was stoked, she brought fresh linens and made the bed and placed fresh towels next to the water basin.
"Call if you need me." Marley said with a smile as she left the room.
Isabella looked around. She sat on the bed and sighed.
"Boring"
She did not know what to do with herself. She tossed her bag aside and left the room for a walk.
The house was exactly the way she remembered it. Elegant blues and reds, but there was a ghostly silence to it. This place was once alive, filled with music and laughter, but now it was like a museum, and only shadows of the past remained. It was a bit dusty, but Marley was the only maid and obviously could not keep up with an entire manor by herself. Isabella came to a room upstairs and opened the door. It was some sort of library. Half the room was books, the other half was unused furniture or storage. Isabella grabbed a journal off one of the shelves and plopped down in a chair to examine it. But then an all to familiar and frightening voice was heard from behind her.
"Well, well, well, Bigieu. How are you this evening?" Julius chuckled.
Isabella drew in her breath and got ready for a fight.
"What is your problem? And why do you keep calling me THAT name?" Isabella said as she stood up and looked him in the eye.
Julius looked into her eyes passionately, he walked up to her and put his arm around her shoulder. He lifted his other hand from under his robe and revealed a mirror similar to the one Medusa had.
"I'll show you." he whispered seductively in her ear.
She saw her reflection in the mirror and suddenly she was overtaken by a powerful surge of energy. She felt a tremendous force pulling her inside to a dark place. All around her was darkness, like a tunnel. Looking around at her surroundings, she shuttered with fear. She looked up and saw a yellow light up ahead. A gust of hot sandy wind blew in her face, she flailed her arms and hands trying to block the sand from her eyes.
The wind let up, Isabella could see in the skies above, a hot burning star. A gentle breeze shifted the sands of a desert, beautiful cascades of yellow and orange undulated before her. In the distance she saw a woman. Striding along in the sand was a beautiful lady. She was tall and thin, but had the full curves of a ripe, mature woman. She wore white harem style pants and a blue bustier. A pink scarf flowed from her shoulders and a beret with a feather sat on her head. She was so lovely, with long elegant red hair and blue eyes. Isabella blinked trying to make the image clearer. This woman looked so like her but this was a human, not a Mavole. A name came into her head. It was her own - Isabella, but the name was only a disguise. Another name came to her head, it was Bigieu. This woman was Bigieu, sent undercover by the Dark Prince to take over Navarre. The Dark Prince? Why does that sound familiar? Another image appeared along side the image of Bigiue, it was a man. An older man, respectable in appearance. He wore an off white robe and a blue beret. A name filled her head, it was Lord Flamekhan. He had gone into the desert and returned with this lady Bigiue.
A bright light flashed, Isabella jerked back and shut her eyes. It startled her, she felt a shiver through her heart. She opened her eyes and saw another scene. The woman Bigieu, was putting a choker on another woman. A name came to mind, "Jessica".
Isabella blinked again, she felt pain surge through her body once more. She felt the sensation of going backwards through the dark tunnel and single frame images of her past flashed before her making her nauseous.
"NO" she thought. She felt violated.
Isabella snapped out of the images and grabbed the mirror. Quickly she turned it around and grabbed Julius by the hair. She forced him to look into the mirror with her. The same image filled both their minds as Julius howled in pain.
What she saw was disturbing. The room was pale green, the ceilings were lit with a bright light, white and green, the floors were deep purple. A man stood in the middle of the room. He was young and strongly built, with a purple body suit and silvery armor. A green cape hung from his shoulders and thick green hair hung down his neck and covered one of his eyes. And those eyes! They were unnatural violet, big and deep, definitely a place for women to get lost in. Two more men walked in. Isabella recognized one immediately. It was Vandole. The second looked familiar but he wore a mask. The man in green spoke.
"Welcome back sir." he said.
"Geshtar. I trust all is in order on Fa' Diel." said Vandole.
"Of course. My army is in complete control of the realms, the last of the resistance will soon be found and brought to their doom." Geshtar replied with confidence.
"Excellent" Vandole said. "I am afraid I have returned with bad news, my plan to subdue our neighboring planet has temporarily failed. I thought they were weaklings and could be easily manipulated. We completed the Tower of Dime and began to drain their mana power but the people over threw me and my army. They will not get away with this! They think I am dead, as long as they believe that my new plan will be sucessful."
The second man, Thanatos, turned to him.
"I must say, I did not agree with the idea of time space travel and conquest of otherworlds in order to gain more mana power. We have our own troubles here with the resistance." Thanatos said.
Thanatos was downright spooky. His voice low, he had long red hair, and wore mage's robes. His face was covered by a skeleton mask.
"Indeed." Vandole said. "But I am not giving up yet."
"And what, pray, did you have in mind?" Thanatos asked.
Vandole smirked. "I am going back, well sort of. I will use your expertise of magic and science, the science of cloning, you should have figured it out by now?"
"I have." Thanatos replied.
Vandole placed his hands behind his back and walked around them. Geshtar stirred.
"Forgive me sir, you're not thinking of...."
"Silence Geshtar." Vandole scolded. "Thanatos, I want you to make me a clone of myself, the child born shall go and enslave this unsuspecting world of pathetic mana worshiping dreamers and we will suck their planet dry of its resources. We will install in this child all our darkest magic and ageless wisdom, he will charm his way into the house of that fool Lord Granz and once again the people will drop to their knees! Obey my command!"
Vandole kicked his heels and walked heavily out of the room.
"He is insane" Geshtar whispered. "He should have never went there in the first place."
Thanatos raised his head, he agreed with Geshtar. But inside he laughed to himself.
"Fool Vandole, doesn't even suspect my master plan". Thanatos thought.
Isabella and Julius snapped out of the dream together. Julius grabbed her arm so hard she thought it might break.
"Bitch!" He hissed.
"Problems Julius?"A voice said.
It was Dark Lord standing before them.
"Let her go Julius!" Dark Lord ordered.
Julius jerked her arm, releasing it. The threesome went silent.
"Sir, what is this little trollop doing here? Julius demanded.
"It is none of your concern Julius, back off." Dark Lord replied angrily.
Julius threw up his hands and surrendered. He knew he would not have to pretend much longer, the last "thing" he needed was hid in his master's pocket. The mana pendant. It was only a matter of time before he would make his move, or maybe he wouldn't have too.
Suddenly they all heard the sound of a musical instrument playing. Odd. It seemed so far away. Dark Lord slowly cocked his head in the direction of the tune. He turned and made his way to the tower to see where it was coming from. Isabella and Julius followed. As they raced to the edge of the tower the notes became louder. Dark Lord felt a sharp pain in his chest as he recognized the song and what was playing it. He slowly approached the edge of the tower over looking Granz Realm and bowed his head. Julius looked at him, and then turned around and left, uninterested and not wanting to deal with him and his emotions. Isabella stepped close to him, sensing something was wrong.
"My brother is dead" Dark Lord said as he looked up to the horizon.
Isabella wanted to go to him. But she changed her mind, she didn't want to offend him and could only guess what he might be feeling now that all his family was gone. She turned around and left the tower, leaving him alone. Dark Lord continued to stare out into the country as tears began to fall down his cheek.
To be continued....
