Shattered Soul

Part C - Restoration

Chapter 20 - Light Restored

Disclaimer - Square Enix owns the characters you recognise, I own the idea and the unrecognisable characters. If you wish to use this fic somewhere then be sure to ask first.

AN: And so here it is, the final Chapter of Shattered Soul

Saffire Raynius - (Blushes furiously and hides behind Vivi's hat) Now Ellisa is an engima that I myself have only just solved! I thought the idea of Vivi having had Chicken pox was cute! Lol. I certainly didn't rush this chapter as it's been the one thing I've had to work towards all along, the other chapters have changed a lot but this had to do some specific things. Ditto on the writing.

Gelendra - Forever is only a measurement, thank you for reviewing. I liked the 'pick one and frag it' line too, it seemed like someone had to say something funny.

Eika - thanks (blushes)

teenyhands - Hehe, thank you.

GemEncrustedEarth - Yes, sorry it's the last chapter now. Thanks very much.

SSS

Four Years Later

Alexandria castle

Crimson gloved hands hastily reached up to adjust a large tan hat, pulling it one way and then the other until it's owner felt that it was in place; before he seemed to realise that it had been right in the first place. From where he was leant against the nearby wall, Zidane grinned slightly at the young man. "You haven't done that in years," He chided of his friend; in the fours years since he had found out about the boys eventual return Vivi had grown considerably, he now stood at roughly Zidane's height and people were not certain that he had stopped growing yet either. Arguably, he was still a little on the stocky side but had lost a lot of the weight he had carried as a child. Zidane, on the other hand, had barely changed at all, save to become more fatherly; the birth of his first child had nipped most of his roguish tendencies in the bud.

Pure yellow eyes looked towards him, sometimes Zidane had to remind himself that Vivi was seventeen now and not a child any more; though, when he considered it, Vivi had never really had a Childs mentality. "I haven't been this nervous in years," Vivi countered, whilst his voice had almost broken he still sounded like himself. "What if they don't remember me?" His anxiety had been growing to some kind of height over the past week at least.

Zidane shot him a quick smile, but the mage had since paced off, "Vivi, you're not the kind of person whose easy to forget," He reassured him. "Trust me, I've tried," He teased, drawing Vivi's eyes. "Mikoto isn't a liar Vivi, they do remember you." The mage started to pace again, and Zidane lent back against the wall.

Small footsteps sounded on the stairs as Sarah bounced down them; she ran to Zidane and hugged him around the legs, "Daddy." She said happily, almost as if she had not only seen him a few hours ago. The option had always been there for Zidane and Garnet to have Sarah cared for by a nanny but it seemed so impersonal; they had chosen to have a daughter and they intended to care for her themselves. "Are boys here yet?" Garnet would have instantly scolded her for not talking properly but Zidane was nowhere near as strict, neither was Vivi, who had been a very key part of her life since he had returned to the castle.

Vivi's desire to talk about his sons had always been varied, dependant on his mood he could either talk about them non-stop or not talk about them for days; sometimes if felt like they were walking on eggshells but Zidane appreciated that his friend was still grieving for what had been in the past, everything would change today. "Not yet," He replied tightly, his voice was still maturing and sometimes it would become higher pitched, something that Sarah would ordinarily find hilarious.

Shortly there was a commotion in the corridor, drawing two sets of blue and one set of yellow eyes to the heavy wooden divider; time seemed to slow down, the doors seemed to take an eternity to open. 288 appeared first, flanked by six near identical figures; he bowed his head slightly to Vivi. "Sorry we're late, Turo decided to find Calan's hat; it took us a while to find it." He apologised, drawing a laugh from on of the Genome's.

The smallest Genome - the only one whose eyes were silvery blue - could bear being apart from his father no longer and rushed to hug him. The feeling was unmistakeable, Vivi knew at once whom he was hugging without being told; he brushed a hand down Valian's hair as he held him tightly, willing himself not to cry because he had already decided that today was not the day for that. The others ran to join their younger brother, clamouring for a joint hug. Not a word was said, for words are all too often fiendishly inadequate; the hugs and the kisses were more then enough.

Nicara pulled away first, turning his yellow eyes on Sarah, "You must be our cousin Sarah," He guessed, his voice still sounded exactly the same as it had four years before. The overwhelmed child could only reply with a nod of her head, her mouth opened in shock, as she looked at all the boys. "My name's Nicara, but everyone calls me Nic, pleased to meet you."

"Helloh Nic,"

The academic smiled in response, "Here, let me introduce you to my brothers," He offered, holding out a hand to her; Sarah took it and Nicara escorted her to where his father stood with the others. "The biggest one, the one nearly as tall as dad, is Calan; we all call him Cal because he doesn't like it, he wants to be a knight just like Steiner when he's big enough." Calan nodded in reply to this introduction, "He usually carries a sword, but Mr. 288 made him leave it for now." Nicara beamed widely at his older brother, "The next one down is Sola, he's a very strong Black mage but he's not so good at anything else," He teased.

Sola tried to look indignant but failed, his smiling eyes ruined the look entirely, "That's a bit unfair Nic, there are some things I'm good at." He did not elaborate but Vivi knew he referred to his popularity with the fairer sex. "Hiya Sarah," He greeted with a traditional flirty smile, the smile was usual for Sola, he had an irrepressible flirtatious nature, much like Zidane's had been in the past.

"If we're working in age order, then Ollan and I -" Nicara gestured his twin as he continued his introductions, " - are next; Ollan makes very good music, but he doesn't talk very much." Ollan bowed his head slightly, but remained silent. "I'm a scholar like Dr. Tot, but nowhere near as clever yet, I know which books are the most fun and exciting."

"Or downright boring," Sarah gave a delighted giggle at this interruption, looking to the Genome who had spoken who grinned in reply. "My name's Turo, and I don't really do anything special," He admitted, making Vivi smile slightly, "I like playing tricks and making people laugh," Now Sarah could place Turo with the hat stealer that 288 had mentioned.

The four year old finally looked to Valian, who stood close to his father holding onto his arm as if he were afraid to let go. "That's Valian Sarah," Zidane introduced as he came up behind her, "He's very shy, like your uncle Vivi was when I first met him and he's a white mage, just like you are." Vivi tried to encourage Valian to take a step forwards but his youngest son refused to let go of him; Zidane chuckled. "He's not letting go in a hurry," The Genome offered with a wink to Vivi and a confident smile to Valian.

"Vali - Vali – Vally!" Sarah tried to say Valian's full name but the three-syllable word proved too complicated for her and so she shortened it; no one else could find it in them to point out that they all shortened his name to Val. She made an 'up' gesture to her father and Zidane picked her up, "All same!" She realised, speaking a little louder then she had to as she looked at the boys. "Like my daddy."

This drew chuckles from most everyone and Nicara smiled at her, "Don't worry Sarah, before we went away we had coloured armbands so people could tell us apart." He told her; as hard as he tried Vivi could not repress the beaming smile on his face, everything seemed to have slipped back into place. "And we're planning on changing our clothes slightly too; Sola intends to dye his hair and tail brown, like yours."

Sarah's eyes widened and she seemed shocked, drawing her tail up and clutching it into her chest so that Sola could not get it; this caused another laugh from the others; Zidane ruffled her hair fondly. "A different shade Sarah," Sola assured her with a wide smile, "I want it really dark like your mum's." He removed his hat and ran a hand through his dusty blond hair, "I can't spend my whole life looking like Cal."

Calan rolled his eyes with a slight shake of his head, playing the role of the put upon eldest brother well. "What colours?" Sarah asked, leaning over in Zidane's arms to poke Valian, who seemed to fascinate her.

The shy little white mage hid his eyes even deeper under the shadow of his hat, "W - well," He stammered, his voice requiring a great deal of attention to hear; listening to him made Zidane realise that Valian was certainly more shy then his father had been. "C - Calan had a red one," He told her, eyes still hidden, of all the boys he was the only one who ever called Calan by his full name. "Sola had black, Ollan purple. T - Turo made Nicara use grey because he thinks books are boring and Turo uses blue. I - I got a green one."

The young child seemed to be deep in thought, her brow wrinkling in contemplation. "Purple's best," She announced at last. "Pretty colour," Ollan smiled slightly as she looked to him, she could clearly already tell them apart. Vivi had never relied on the armbands to tell his sons apart but tended to trust to the magical feeling from them; each one, even the twins and equally skilled Turo and Ollan felt different and Vivi had be relieved to find that this had not changed.

"Off you go boys," He said at last, "I know you all have people you want to see again," There was a delighted chorus of 'thank you's' as most of the boys left, they had people to speak to after four years. Just as he was about to head out, Vivi managed to grab Sola by the arm. "I had a visit from a friend of yours," Vivi said, which caused Sola to hide his eyes guiltily. "Ferellia said to tell you that she's working with Ruby." Sola let out a relieved sigh and Vivi wondered briefly what secrets the flirtatious mage was hiding; he had been in Alexandria less then an hour and already he was hiding secrets, internally Vivi laughed, things were definitely back to normal.

The steely grip remained on his arm and Vivi looked down at his youngest son with a very fond smile, "You can let go now Val, I'm not going anywhere," Vivi assured him softly, dropping to his level so that he could stroke his cheek quickly. He extricated himself from the snug grip, patting Valian on the head as he stood strait again. "Your cousin if not going to bite you Val," He gently pat Valian on the bum to push him forwards as Zidane let Sarah down.

Made of all bounce and spring, Sarah moved to Valian's side and looked up under his hat and into his eyes. "Pretty blue," She said with a smile, poking his nose with one finger. "You've got pretty eyes, like mine." Vivi chuckled a little, Sarah's lack of modesty was only because she was a child; the mage did not doubt that Garnet's nature would eventually become clear in her. "So blue,"

"I - it's because I'm … a white mage, whereas the others are … Black Mages," He offered in a very soft voice, hiding his eyes again. "I - if you look at Calan closely, you can see that his are more blue then yellow because his strongest magic is Fira."

"They looked yellow to me," Sarah insisted stubbornly, and Valian looked desperately to Vivi, unsure of what to do. Valian and his brothers had never dealt with a child of Sarah's age; Valian had been created with the mental age of a four year old but had acted in a completely different way to the rambunctious and normal Sarah.

Vivi moved forwards and the four year old bounced up and down near to him, asking to be picked up without using words; bowing to her demand, he soon held her in his arms. "If you look very closely at Calan later Sarah, you'll see that his eyes seem yellow but they're actually quite blue too. Even Sola has some blue in his eyes if you look very deeply."

This comment caused her to look very deeply into his eyes for a long time, her little nose wrinkling as if she was trying to find something buried deeply in Vivi's soul; the mage fought the urge to close his eyes, he disliked locking eyes with people. "Yours aren't," She announced at last, "All yellow, not even a little black spot in the middle."

Zidane chuckled and looked to Vivi, who looked back for a moment, "No, but I'm not a Genome am I?" Vivi asked her.

"I don't know,"

"Sarah, Genome's have tails," With this, he playfully tugged hers.

Vivi let her down again, and she moved to Valian's side again, they could all see her utter enchantment with the youngest mage. "Let's go play!" She insisted, pulling on his arm; his blue eyes widened and he looked to Vivi, who jerked his head in the direction of the door. The white mage yielded to Sarah's tugs and she pulled him from the room.

"Heh, why is it they remind me of you and Eiko?" Zidane queried with a smile as he moved to Vivi's side. 288, who had remained a passive bystander in the reunion moved to join them both. "How are you and my little sister doing then 288?" The Genome queried of the erstwhile C type mage, who seemed to blush slightly.

"Well enough I believe," The other Genome offered vaguely, causing Zidane's smile to become more mischievous. Zidane and Vivi had spoken a few days past about how well 288 and Mikoto seemed to get on, and Zidane had started to wonder about cousins for Sarah, which had made Vivi shake his head out of exasperation.

"Didn't she want to come see her big brother?"

"She has been very busy,"

Zidane took him by the elbow, and grabbed Vivi by his too. "Well we can't stand here all day; we've been here near enough all morning anyway." He steered them both towards the main hall. A white robed figure watched them leave before it emerged from the shadows; her unhurried pace matching the route Valian and Sarah had taken, one day Ellisa would be a master healer and every master needed an apprentice.

SSS

'Life and those kind of things always have these funny little ways of working themselves out; somehow things seem to slip back into place. Everything just seems to be right again; it was as if Death admitted he had made a mistake in taking Vivi's sons and was willing to confess it by giving them back again. It's affected the whole castle, it's corridors now seem energised as music plays with it merging with Sarah's delighted laughter. I think things are going to be radically different here from now on, not different in a bad way, infact it may be best to say right instead of different. Everything is ordered again and I shall never again have to sit with a broken teenager.'

SSS

END!

AN: But not the end really as I have it's follow ups ready to be written, typed and pawed over.

To all of you who are wondering, there is a fic that fits between chapters 19 and 20 and it's first chapter is sitting in written form besides me but I can't seem to find the motivation to type it up.

Now, part two of this arc is partily written, the plot needs tweaking and part three is not really an idea yet just a series of dialogues; however, part three does finally explain Ellisa a little bit!

I must thank you all for reviewing, it is your kind words that have helped me to continue on.

Please leave a review, I know it seems pointless in a finished work but as stated this is more a starting point then anything else. This is your chance to offer theories, ideas, criticisms and questions; any queries will be answered via email so make sure you leave a contact address if you are asking a question.

Finally, I very much hoped you enjoyed this, at times it seemed like I couldn't keep going but I'm glad that I did.

Anyway, until next time (Which may be some time away).

Pilotslover