Fantasia Finale
By Faronon Star Wolf
Author's notes: A look into how the Final Fantasy worlds could be connected...
She built the world, and watched. It grew for a millennia, and then She began to grow bored. A wave of Her hand, and chaos spread. She frowned, though, for four rose and destroyed it. Puzzled, She brought catastrophe, and began again. Again, disaster was averted. Again. Another defeat.
She started again, bringing the souls She had snuffed out and making a river of them, sinking it beneath the skin of the planet. There was something new growing on the planet, something that called themselves the Cetra. Foolish beings. She decided to see what would happen if She placed a part of Herself onto the planet.
A strand of Her being crashed into the planet, injuring it. The Cetra attempted to heal the wound, and then something that She hadn't expected began to occur - the River of Souls began to gather around the wound Her separate self had created in the flesh of the planet, trying to repair it. She awoke a part of Her being and infected the Cetra with a disease. Humans, small and weak, began to grow in power. She watched as they grew and died and grew again, and then one human discovered how to use the souls to power their homes. She heard the screams, and smiled.
And just as quickly, She frowned. Her smaller self had been discovered. It was being used as a "mother" for a being. She smiled. This, perhaps, would be interesting.
She watched and brooded as Her "son" grew, and then, in a second, was defeated by a child. She reached out, sheltering him from the savage flow of the souls which made up the planet's lifeblood. Encased in a sparkling shell, Her son slept. The "father" began to create copies, and She subtly encouraged him to do more, go further, to bring more pain to these small, weak humans.
And then that irritating child destroyed one of the torture-plants, and began down a path She knew well. Despite knowing how the Story would end, She allowed it to continue.
Perhaps this time it would end with the Enemy that had been born winning.
But it didn't. The weak child became stronger, and succeeded, and was both loathed and loved. Five hundred years passed in a blink of Her eye, and She allowed the humans to continue living, to create a space craft, and to leave the weak planet. A flick of Her wrist, and the craft was wrapped in Her power, to be kept for future use.
Finally She destroyed it, and nurtured it back to a point of final death. She encouraged the final battle. A great sin was born, and wrought destruction upon the world. Somehow the humans managed to survive, but She encouraged the spiral of death, watching as weak human after weak human died as a sacrifice, and then were brought forth as the next Death Walking.
But it was once again destroyed, again by a weak child who was hardened by his travel. She frowned, furious.
With a wave of Her hand, She brought destruction.
Again She started. This time She suppressed the technological bent of the humans, forcing them to rely on magic. They grew in number, as vermin are known to do, and She brought the craft into play. Inside it She placed another form of Herself, bringing Hatred into the world.
He lay quiet until the birth of two small children allowed him a grip in the world. He began to work his will, bringing the world to the point of destruction, but he, as well, was destroyed in the end. She shrieked in rage and tore the planet into pieces, reforging it into a shape that pleased Her. The magic now lay solely in points where the River of Souls welled up through the pores of the planet, and in the hands of women with Powers.
She encouraged one such woman into bringing war, but she was defeated by a bumbling fool of a man. Furious, She struck out and destroyed the one he cared most about. Then, She reached into the future until She found one of those Women, one whose soul wept with loss and despair, and brutally brought the seeds of madness to fruition in her mind. She enlightened her to the existence of one who would help her bring the world to a standstill.
The paths crossed, and the Enemy was destroyed, but with a sadistic glee, She allowed the child who had brought the end to Her destruction to be the one who "began" the cycle in the first place. She destroyed him, then, and began again.
This time She created a more fantastic world, with a poisonous mist that would turn the humans into monsters. She created a Tree of Death, and a Deathbringer, and the leeches that would inhabit the planet, and set it into motion. A third sliver of Herself watched from the center of the River of Souls, in the Cathedral of Memories. Death lay heavy above a fragment of life.
The Deathbringer failed, destroyed by the newer model. The creator lay dead, and the leeches destroyed. Death brought to death by the latest in a line of destined heroes. She sneered.
Death was reborn in the next world. He was again destroyed.
She gave a fourth fragment unto the world, and he took control, and was unstoppable. Yet in the end he died, and with him, the world's magic.
And with a flick of Her wrist, She brought catastrophe again, and began again.
Rebirth led to Destruction which led to Defeat and returned to Rebirth.