Chapter 4, One mimic to go, please
"This is one kind of a trip, Strago," Karn grunted and leaned against the wheel, "and why won't your son-in-law tell us why we're going down here?"
"I wish I knew," the older man gruffly replied, "but when Clyde's decided to stay silent he wouldn't speak up even if I tied his arms to a tree and his legs to an adamanchyt."
The owner of the small fishing ship glanced upwards.
"I have to say he's one heck of a climber though."
Despite the owner's vague protests and warnings about breaking the sail, Clyde had reached the highest top of the mast and was shadowing his eyes with one hand to look for land.
Upon looking at a proper map the travelers had decided to go southwards and reach the peculiar island via that route instead. It saved them at least one day. That was just better. After three days on the ship, wondering about what Clyde was planning to do, everyone else was about ready to pick him apart.
Not that they didn't trust him, but he absolutely refused to tell them who they were going to look for. The only (very frustrating) reply they had gotten was:
"You have to see him to believe me anyway."
Now Strago followed his friend's gaze and glared rather fondly at his granddaughter's father.
"I'd say he's one heck of an everything, even though he can be a real pain sometimes."
"So you say?" Karn chuckled.
"Oh yeah."
"Land! We're closing in!" Clyde suddenly shouted and uncharacteristically punched the air in triumph.
"Yes!" Relm cheered and jumped up and down, earning a puzzled glance from Interceptor.
Clyde slid down and went over to the stem. A grim, small smile touched his lips as he placed his hands on the wooden, thick railing and watched the distant mountaintops that were beginning to grow into sight.
'Now I can only hope that he's still alive…' the retired ninja grimly thought, 'and still there… who knows, it's been almost eleven years.'
For a moment he lowered his gaze to the waves that broke before the ship as it moved on. Then he looked up at the cloudy sky and closed his eyes, letting the wind wash over his face.
'Salea, watch over us now and bring us that blessing. We need hope… and so does he…'
The wind was on their side and within two hours they could disembark to the southeast of the mountains, just below the high sandbanks of the beach.
"There's no monsters here that would go into the water," Clyde explained to Karn, "just stay here and you'll be fine. This should only take to sundown, in any case we'll come back by then."
"Alright," the fisherman said, "good luck with whatever you're going to do."
"Oh, if I told you now my family and friend here would tear me to pieces after calling me loonier than Kefka…"
And with that Clyde climbed down in the small lifeboat of the ship.
"Now I'm getting worried…" Terra grunted and climbed after him.
"Amen to that," Strago said with a frown.
Relm was silent until she sat in front of her father in the boat.
"I hope you're not planning something extremely weird, dad," she warned, "because I'm getting tired of weirdos by now."
"Ah, sorry about that…" Clyde said with a small smirk.
He began to row while everyone else exchanged glances and Interceptor fearlessly dove from the ship to swim instead since the boat was too small.
"Clyde. What. Are. We. Going. To. Do. Here?" Strago said, very slowly and dangerously.
"Alright, alright…"
The younger man's smirk died and he gravely watched his companions.
"Many years ago, just when I had recovered and left Thamasa and Salea I went to Vector to find Baram," he said and watched them nod in recognition at the friend he had told them about already, "I hoped that he was still alive. But he was nowhere to be found, I had to realize that he was dead. So in my wish for revenge I aimed for something important to Gestahl that I could take as repayment."
He paused for a moment as they softly hit the beach, but decided to finish his story before they continued the journey. The others remained still as he kept talking.
"I was sneaking around in the air condition system, and during that search I had noted a very peculiar cell in the very heart of the prisons. The position made windows impossible, there wasn't even a bared window in the door. Very heavily guarded, too. Of course I realized that whoever was in there was very special, so I decided to take a closer look."
His mouth was a thin line as he continued.
"Spying on the guards while I planned my strategy just made it seem even more strange. It seemed like everyone were just as puzzled about the cell as I was. Food to the prisoner was brought in via a small hatch at the bottom of the door, and that was the strangest thing of all. You see, the one who came there everyday and opened the heavy lock on the hatch was Kefka."
"Now this sounds really weird," Relm commented, her eyebrows as high as they possibly could get.
Clyde nodded.
"Yes, and you should have seen how he looked when doing so," he gravely said, "he tried to look calm but I saw him pale and his movements were strangely mechanical."
He fell silent again, clenching his teeth.
"I planned carefully for two days before I hit early in the morning. By pouring a liquid that turns into a transparent sleeping gas when exposed to oxygen down the wall from my hiding place, I knocked out the guards just after one of their shifts. Then I sneaked down and managed to open the locks on the door even though they were quite a few. Inside the cell…"
Clyde shook his head and resolutely stood up, waving at the others to step ashore. Interceptor was already waiting after having shook off all the water.
"The person inside that cell literally caused me to jump," the former assassin said, "and you'll have to see why with your own eyes."
"Did you bring him here of all places?" Strago said, rather astounded, "and why, who is he?"
"You'll understand, trust me."
Clyde chuckled without any joy.
"I wish I could have seen Kefka and Gestahl's reaction when they found out he had escaped. I simply couldn't have found a better revenge at them than freeing that man."
Still puzzled the crew followed him up the sandbanks and from top of that looked over a great plain.
But the ground was peculiar. It was irregular and bumpy, as if giant moles had been in the work.
"So this really is that island where the zone eaters live?" Strago slowly said.
Clyde silently nodded.
"What's a zone eater?" Terra blankly asked.
"It's a gigantic worm monster," the oldest one in the crew explained, "they are said to be more like living mountains, having caves and tunnels in their bodies instead of normal entrails."
"Exactly, and we're looking for one with a half moon scar on its head," Clyde said and began walking down to the buckled grass.
"We're what!?" Relm, Strago and Terra choked.
"Look, this man needed to be hidden where nobody ever would look for him," the dark blond man called without turning around.
Interceptor calmly strode after him, ignoring the three bewildered humans.
"He's got to be kidding…" Relm groaned but hurried after her father.
With no other options in sight Strago and Terra did the same.
Clyde didn't wait for his friends before he went over to one of the long hills of torn earth and kicked it a few times. Then he leaped backwards, followed by a swift Interceptor.
The others had just enough seconds to use for reaching the man and the dog before the earth began to tremble and a gigantic, scaly thing emerged from the earth. It looked like a worm's head, grey-purple and equipped with a horrifying round mouth encircled by dirty but very sharp teeth.
"You can't mean that we're going inside that?!" Terra said with a rather weak voice.
"No, I don't think that it's the right one…" Clyde absentmindedly said, "I have to take a closer look."
And with that he dashed forward again, dancing around the horrifying beast as it clumsily swayed back and forth, trying to sense where the snack was. He even leaped in under it to check for the scar on the downside. And then he came back to his rather stunned friends.
"Nope, it's not the one," he grunted, "let's move it before it starts trying to suck us in."
"They can do that?" Relm weakly asked as they hurried away from the confused monster.
"That's about all they can do," her father lightly said, "not really dangerous since it's not that hard to get out, but it would be a waste of time."
And with that he went over to another hill and kicked it.
A few hours and some odd twenty big worms later even the other humans had resigned to Clyde's madness and helped him check the zone eaters for the fabled scar.
They had just had a simple lunch on salted fish, wild berries and bread and were at new strength, ready for a couple of hours more of wormsearching even though it was starting to feel rather hopeless.
"How many now?" Strago gruffed while Relm jumped on one of the hills to get the inhabitant out.
"This is probably the twenty-seventh or something," Clyde replied, sounding rather frustrated as well.
Relm let out a shriek as the zone eater suddenly emerged just below her and she swayed upon it, desperately trying to keep her balance.
"We're coming, Relm!" Clyde shouted and rushed forward together with Interceptor, Terra and Strago.
"No!" Relm shouted with a wide grin and jumped down from the enormous head to the ground without any trouble at all, "it's got a scar!"
"What?!"
"Right there, above the mouth!" the artist cheered.
Without the slightest hesitation Clyde swept up on the crumbling hill to take a look.
"It's the one!" he bellowed in triumph, "we're going in!"
The relief and feeling of victory that the others had felt died instantly at the realization that they really were going to enter the beast.
"Are you sure about this, Clyde?" Strago called to his son-in-law.
"Are you going to give up now?" was the reply.
Strago heavily sighed.
"I guess not…" he grunted.
"Well good! Let's go!"
And Clyde landed just before the worm, standing still and waiting. It didn't take long for the beast to detect the smell of a living being and bent down its mouth to suck him in. But the ex-ninja didn't even grant it that, throwing himself into the darkness between the teeth without the slightest hesitation.
At first his friends were locked in the shock of seeing him actually do such a thing.
Relm was the first to awake.
"You're crazy, dad!" she howled and rushed forward, leaping after her father into the obviously surprised monster.
Interceptor was just behind her.
"This is nuts…" Terra grunted as she ran towards the void.
"I second that," Strago snarled, following her.
They dove into the nothingness.
Terra landed and blinked stupidly at Relm, Interceptor and Clyde.
"Wasn't so bad, was it?" the man said with the shadow of a smile.
He hadn't even finished talking before Strago slid down the sloped wall and easily landed on the ground.
"No but…"
Terra looked around in puzzlement.
"Is this how monsters look on the inside?" she said in amaze.
It really was a cave. Fine earth laid around everywhere, probably had been swallowed by the big worm creature as it dug its tunnels. And in the fine mud fruits and thin vegetables grew among pale grass, growing in the peculiar light that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at the same time (author's note: Look, I don't think Gogo was eating the monsters inside of the zone eater to keep alive…). Some of it flowed in from a wide crack in the wall to the right of the group's entrance. Clyde waved at it.
"That's the exit," he explained, "I sure hope my friend hasn't used it, but I doubt he would."
"If he has," Strago said and put power behind every single vocal, "you are a dead man."
"Really now… let's just find out, shall we?"
Following Clyde they left the small entrance room and entered a huge cavern. To the right was a wide chasm; pieces of a broken bridge still emerged from it. And on the pieces men in peculiar dark clothes walked around, seemingly without any particular reason.
"Don't get too close," Clyde warned, "those are just humanoid monsters."
He walked closer to the canyon and cupped his hands around his mouth to strengthen his shout.
"Gogo!" he called on top of his lunges, "Gogo, can you hear me?"
"'Gogo'?" Terra, Relm and Strago blankly repeated.
Clyde lowered his hands and shook his head.
"He wanted me to call him that," he emotionlessly muttered without turning around, "he thought that it was a suitable name for the fool he regarded himself to be."
"Sounds like a happy fellow…" Relm commented.
"Indeed…"
"Shadow?"
The call startled them all and they looked towards the other side of the abyss.
It was a… heap of yellow clothes with some colorful feathers on top?
"You're alive!" Clyde shouted with an uncharacteristical grin.
"So are you!" the heap called back with a strangely muffled voice, "wait a moment, I'm coming over!"
And it began leaping between the pieces of the bridge to reach the other side. The five guests watched in amaze.
It was impossible to grasp how the creature called Gogo did it. Whenever one of the humanoid monsters approached him he seemed to move perfectly with it, following its every movement to somehow avoid it. And even managed not to fall off the bridge when doing so. The monsters had no chance to get him as he confused them and brushed past.
Finally the heap reached safe ground and stood before the visitors. Now on closer look it turned out it really was a human, shrouded in wide robes colored yellow, red and green. Several big feathers in those colors swayed on the helmet he wore, and the reason his voice was so muffled was that he wore a thick veil over his face. The only thing visible of his face between the veil and helmet were his two grey eyes, which ran over the guests with a puzzled expression.
"I see you've gained a few skills down here," Clyde said with a small smile.
"And you've changed, haven't you?" Gogo replied, a weak smile in his stifled voice, "why did you come here, then?"
He looked over the confused humans again.
"And who are your friends?"
"We need your help," Clyde said, grimly all at once.
Gogo sharply turned to him.
"My help?" he said, blankly.
Then suddenly his eyes exploded with pitch black horror.
"Kerr?"
The single word was a hoarse whisper, almost trembling. And whatever it meant Clyde seemed to understand.
"Partly," the ex-assassin gravely said, "Gogo… Gestahl and… Kefka has obtained the power of the goddess statues, and they are ruling the world."
The peculiar hesitation before Kefka's name was just as strange as Gogo's reaction. He stared at Clyde and pressed his hand against the veil, desperately shaking his head.
"No, it cannot…" he harshly croaked.
"But it is, I'm sorry."
Clyde sighed.
"And we might be the only ones left who can fight them since we can use a little magic," he said, "so we need all help we can get."
"Shadow…"
"No."
Clyde shook his head.
"I'm Clyde now," he said.
Slowly Gogo nodded.
"Alright. But what can I do to help you?"
"A lot, I'm sure. Don't you want to clean up after what happened? Here's your chance."
At first the strange man just stared at the floor. Then he slowly looked up and the feathers on his helmet waved back and forth as he nodded.
"Very well," he grimly said, "I don't know if I'll be of much help but I do have a responsibility here."
"Good to hear that," Clyde said and managed a smile, "thank you."
"But who are your friends, then?" the new ally asked again while looking at the other humans, not unfriendly.
Clyde took in a deep breath and released it slowly.
"This is Strago, my father-in-law, and my daughter Relm."
"Your daughter?" Gogo said, kindly.
He took Strago's offered hand, rather tentatively. It seemed like he was lightly said shy when it came to strangers…
"And…" Clyde slowly said as Relm let go of the gloved hand, "this is Terra."
Yet another peculiar reaction. The green haired woman almost recoiled as the grey eyes darted to her, wide open in shock.
"Did you come here to give me a second chance or a heart attack?" the cloth heap finally said after a stunned moment.
"Sorry," Relm's father grimly said.
Gogo let out a deep breath and shook his head, looking at Terra with a calmer but still pained expression.
"Forgive my reaction," he said, "it's just…"
He fell silent and shook his head again with closed eyes.
"It's her, isn't it?" he muttered under his breath.
"Yes," Clyde replied in a low voice.
"Who are you?" Terra asked, surprising herself with her calm voice.
Gogo didn't reply, but he turned his head to Clyde with pain in his eyes.
"We better tell them," the dark blond man gravely said.
"I was afraid you'd say that."
The veiled one sighed.
"How do they know Kerr?" he asked.
"Worst possible."
Gogo turned to the roof and closed his eyes again for a moment.
"Who's Kerr?" Relm blankly said.
Before Clyde spoke he awaited a sad nod from Gogo.
"Kerr is Kefka," the retired ninja calmly said.
The three humans he had brought blinked, confused.
"What do you mean?" Strago roughly asked, "Kefka is Kefka, isn't he?"
"No…"
Gogo heavily sighed and looked away.
"Kefka isn't Kefka."
He turned to the visitors for a second but looked away again.
"I am Kefka," he whispered.
"Wha… what?!" Terra, Relm and Strago choked.
Clyde held up his hands for silence.
"The one we know as Kefka is really a man named Kerr," he explained with darkened eyes and pointed at Gogo with his whole hand, "and Kerr is this man's twin brother."
A gloved hand reached up and clenched over the yellow veil, carefully tearing it off. A corner of it reached the floor and an awfully familiar face bitterly turned to the stunned ones.
He lacked the make-up; the pale powder, lipstick and the sharp edges of rouge pointing from the madman's eyes. And speaking of the eyes they were already proved different, free of insanity's flame. But it was without a single doubt Kefka. The eyes were sad but had the right shape, that bony face, the nose and those thin lips.
"Oh, goddesses."
Relm said it first, Strago repeated her words, Terra echoed him and Maduin muttered the very same thing inside of her head.
"Sorry."
The whispered word fell from the pale man's lips as he started to retie the veil with skilled hands that trembled a little. His eyes were tightly shut as he did so.
Forgive me, I'm so sorry for being the one I am.
"Take it easy, from the start," Clyde urged in a low voice.
"Alright…"
Gogo took in a deep breath.
"Many years ago me and my brother were both scientists in Vector," he slowly began, "we started off with improving machinery of varying kind, but I began to lean towards magic studies, while Kerr was interested in more rational things like mathematics. But Gestahl was interested in what I was working with, so I grew in reputation faster than my brother and…"
"Hold it, time out!" Relm shot in, "did you say that Kef… our Kefka liked math?"
The man in yellow gravely nodded.
"He was quite a genius, actually," he said with an almost invisible stitch of battered pride for a brother, "I tried, but I could never reach his level."
"See?" Relm said with a glare at her grandfather, "I've told you it's evil!"
Gogo closed his eyes and bitterly pinched the bridge of his nose through the veil.
"Sorry," the young girl honestly said as she noticed the reaction, "habit."
"No…"
There was an almost strangled, bitter sigh.
"I'm afraid you're right, after all that's happened I shouldn't be clinging to the past."
He shook his head and started telling his tale again.
"So, I found the way to the espers and… Gestahl himself led the expedition. I was just as thrilled as everyone else when they returned, but…"
Karn asked, of course. And Strago told him that the peculiar figure that the family, dog and Terra brought came back with by sundown was an old employee of Gestahl that had betrayed him and been forced to flee. Of course, he didn't give any details and told it in such a way that Karn understood that he'd be better off not knowing. And he respected that, knowing Strago well enough to know when the line was reached.
And down in the small cabin inside of the fishing ship Terra, Relm and Clyde were trying to talk Gogo into taking a step he wasn't eager to make.
"Oh no, no, no, no, no, no and no! I can't touch that!"
"Come on, you're more stubborn than my daughter!" Clyde sighed and continued despite Relm's protesting squeal, "you won't stand a chance against the enemies we have now if you don't learn magic!"
"It's my fault they're like that!" the mimic bitterly grunted, crossing his arms and looking away even more sternly.
"You couldn't know Gestahl's true intentions, who could?" Terra tried, again.
Gogo shook his head so that the feathers almost broke.
"You don't understand," he grunted, "I can't do it!"
"The bad air down in that worm must have affected your brain," Relm snarled, "magic is really important to know nowadays!"
"I already know magic!" Gogo muttered.
After a moment's confused silence he sighed.
"I know the principles, just no spells," he explained in a calmer manner, "now please. I can't oblige the espers to help me become stronger after all harm I've caused them."
"It wasn't you who killed them, or imprisoned them," Terra said in a soft voice.
"But it was my fault."
Terra let her face turn fully to the green, transparent stone in her hands. The flame slowly danced back and forth.
"Look," the half-esper finally said, "father has talked to all the others and they know your situation. None of them hold any grudge against you, Gogo. They trust you."
"Terra, I…"
"Take this now."
Gently Terra reached out one hand and pulled Gogo's right arm free from the crossing.
Very slowly and reluctantly he unclenched his fist and she placed the magicite in the ungloved palm.
The mimic closed his eyes, shaking his head as his fingers encircled the magic rock.
"Siren?" he muttered after a moment.
"It's a good start," Relm said with a smile.
"Hmm."
Gogo slowly shook his head and closed his hands around the magicite as he looked up at his allies.
"Talking about start, what are we going to do now?" he grimly asked.
"First we're going back to Thamasa, we're fairly safe there for the time being," Clyde explained, "we'll need to plan carefully before we do anything at all."
"What can we do?" the mimic asked with a frown, "even with me here, what can be done?"
Clyde looked away for a moment.
"I know you won't like this but…"
He was unable to meet the veiled man's eyes.
"… Gestahl is the fattest vulture, but your brother is his hunter. And if there was the slightest chance for you to distract him…"
The former assassin left the sentence unfinished, still not looking up. He didn't miss anything pleasant. In Gogo's eyes was a flaring wave of pained emotions at the thought of getting his own flesh and blood killed. Rage over the first betrayal was followed by overwhelming guilt for the blood thirst and then torn, helpless hope for something impossible.
Terra reached out and carefully took the man's hand, her heart bleeding over seeing such torments.
"I suppose…" Gogo's muffled voice heavily said after a drawn out moment, "that if there's no other way…"
But his eyes were by the last words pinched shut in abhorrence.
And the small ship sailed on, towards the east.
