Disclaimer: None of the characters of FF6 belong to me. I mean no offense to their creators by writing this.
You're dead now. You have been for a very long time, or a very short time; I guess all these things come from perspective. For the children I've been watching over, this year has to have been a small eternity. I'm more than twenty now, and even for me the days stretch on forever. I seem to remember, very far back into the arms of the few memories I have left, that you once spoke to me of something like that. That time moved so quickly when you were old; that time was almost another creature, working in an entirely different way.
Was your mortality what caused you to do this? Were you afraid of death? Is that why you sought the power of the statues, even though they were cursed and wretched and capable of ruining everything of value? I think you were drawn by the danger, since you were the type of man to see beauty in dangerous things.
You saw beauty in me, didn't you? In my power, even though it devastated many of your own men when you set it loose in Albrook and Maranda. I've heard that I was terrible. I was - am, in fact - hated because of what happened there, but I can't defend myself. I don't remember anything, except cold and dark and... afraid.
Were you afraid, before the very end? Before Kefka killed you with the power that should have been yours? You must know, wherever you've gone, that most of the world hates you just as it once hated me. They fear Kefka but they hate you, because you are the only person they can think of to blame. Ambition yields death and terror and they hold it against you solely. I think they forget that you didn't act alone. Ambition brought their sons and daughters to you, to be modified and infused with magic, or to run the mighty machines of the empire.
I know, even if no one else does, that you never intended for things to go so far. I detest you as a man. I'm sure you know that as well. We trusted you, we expected you to see the terrible power you were reaching for, and yet you still thought you knew better. In the end, as you lay dying, I think you saw that.
Kefka only mutilated this earth. You never intended that. You would have been a tyrant, and you and I were destined to be enemies ever since I regained my own mind, because you are everything that that keeps me from my humanity.
Maybe I'm blaming you for the things I haven't been able to resolve on my own. In all truth, I really don't know what I am. Half mortal, half monster, and I don't know which is which. Human desire destroyed the entire race of Espers, and they were once human themselves, persecuted across time and space and all history. No one understood that. They didn't ask to be what they were, just as I don't want to spend the rest of my life split in half, wondering if I'll ever feel whole again.
I don't expect this to mean anything to you. You're dead. As I've said, I don't know what happened to you, but I hope that you're suffering. Not in the fires of hell, or because of any other divine consequence. I hope you suffer because your own conscience reminds you, when you look down on the world, just what you've done. It may be unfair to blame it all on you, but enough of it is certainly your fault. Have you come to terms with that?
If it offers any comfort - and I've not totally convinced myself that you deserve comfort - I'm going to fix what's happened. I'm not sure that I know what love is yet. I've had a very long time to think about it, and I'm closer to an answer than I once was, even if the truth is still a very long way off. I understand about beauty now, and about what's worth saving.
I hope you give me your blessing because of what I'm trying to do, more because of what that action would mean for you than for me. I've found life, and I can't think of anything more perfect. I'll go with the others. I'll start again, even if Kefka or another like him destroys it again and again and again.
No man is completely evil. You weren't. I hope you can see that now. I hope that others, some day, will see it too.
Ollen70: Wow. These are coming out of nowhere. Lots of latent inspiration, I guess. Well, let me know what you think. There are still quite a few scenarios I'm considering writing through this series, and comments are always very, very welcome.