Chapter 3

The Age of Ultimecia

Keeping a safe distance, Thalassa followed him to the doors after picking up her bags from the market. She waited at the entrance as the dirty, trenchcoated man walked to the hotel's reception and requested the room.

The female receptionist gave him an incredulous look but could not argue with the gil note in his hand, making eye contact with Thalassa through the glass. The White SeeD nodded and mouthed that they were together.

She took out a pack of low-tar cigarettes she had received from the trawler captain who had smuggled her into FH. As a fitness enthusiast, Thalassa hated smoking or drugs of any kind, and only consumed alcohol on occasion. But she needed a reason to be standing there while internally consulting with her GF.

You're sure about his aura? she thought as she lit up, not inhaling the unpleasant smoke. How millions of people could get hooked on these things was beyond her.

Yes! Carbuncle's high-pitched voice resonated throughout her head. I know not who he is, and he lied about how he came to be here. But he means you no harm and desperately needs your help. There is something else, though, her GF added. There is an aspect to his aura I cannot place. It is as though he – Carbuncle hesitated a moment – does not belong in this world!

Thalassa looked at the man again.

How can that be? she thought, not necessarily to her GF, then asked, like Gilgamesh, you mean?

Carbuncle pondered his answer. No, not quite the same.

From another timeline, then?

I believe so.

As a White SeeD, Thalassa was well versed in the history of the Second Sorceress War. Anyone who had ever lived had felt some effect of Time Compression, however briefly. Though only a select few knew the whole of it. If people were interfering with time again, Thalassa did not think it boded well for the present.

Stepping on the half-smoked cig, Thalassa turned and walked into the hotel. The man who did not belong had finished checking in. He was helping himself to a plastic cup at a water dispenser. Looking at Thalassa, he chanced a grin as she approached, his teeth cleaner than his face.

'You said no room service.'

She rolled her eyes and said, 'Give me the change and one of the keys. What's the room number?' The man obliged and told her, then headed toward an elevator. 'Take the stairs.' Thalassa said assertively. She only used elevators in tall buildings and was not ready to be alone with him in an enclosed space.

The man said nothing as he calmly strode up two flights of stairs, following the signs to their room. He seemed momentarily confused by the locking mechanism, holding the card in front of the lock before realising he had to swipe it. Thalassa let him walk well into the room before following and closing the door.

She had stayed here before. The room was spartan, with a bunk bed in the far corner, a kitchenette and a round table on the left side. A flat-screen television was fixed to the wall and turned off. Next to the bathroom door was a bookshelf containing magazines or non-fiction books pertaining to engineering and FH's history, the latter of which Thalassa was already learned.

The White SeeD watched as the man hung his trench coat on a chair, slowly removed the dagger sheath from his belt and left the weapon on the table. 'Allow me to get myself cleaned up, then.' He walked into the bathroom but left the door open.

Thalassa turned on the TV, which was pre-set to the local news channel, now largely a mouthpiece and propaganda arm for the Empire.

At eighteen years old, she took TV for granted whenever she was on land. But she understood that for a similar amount of time before her birth, satellite transmissions had not been possible due to the jamming interference from Sorceress Adel's 'tomb' in outer space.

The pictures of seven Esthari soldiers were displayed, all murdered in the early hours of the morning at the 'Sun Dish', according to the news roll. The assailant had not been sighted, but the murder weapon was a parallel-bladed sword. There was a hotline for anyone with information to come forward.

This was not the only recent disturbance at the Dish. A few monsters had randomly appeared there over the past couple of weeks. The grendel, jelleye, and humanoid blitz could only have been put there with human intervention, but the Dish was not near the harbour. Occult Fan journalists had been detained trying to gain access to the Dish.

Thalassa looked to the open bathroom door, the soft sound of running water coming from within. She wondered if this man had been the assailant, and if those monsters had been from the future, too. Eventually the man appeared in the doorway, patting his clean face with a towel. He turned to hang it on something next to the door.

'Well, Thalassa Debonair - if that's your name. I believe we got off on the wrong foot,' he said with a faint smile, rubbing his forearms. 'My name is Gerra. I'm assuming you're a SeeD. I need to meet with the Lionheart. Failing that, either President Caraway or Sorceress Rinoa, before Esthar invades Galbadia.'

Gerra spoke like the Centran nomads, with soft 'r's and upward inflections at the end of his sentences, but it was a variation she was unfamiliar with. If he really was from the future, an adulterated Centran diction would make sense.

'It's Dincht, not Debonair,' she clarified. 'But that name is too widely known in Esthar, and for good reason,' Thalassa said, staring into the middle distance for a moment. 'Where might you be from?'

Gerra did not reply immediately, but Carbuncle confirmed he was not lying when he said, 'Centra.'

During this era, the southern subcontinent of Centra and the archipelago to its northwest was populated only by hunter gatherers, chocobo breeders and trading caravans. These were descended from the advanced kingdom born from the ashes of the civil war that fractured the ancient Centran empire. This Lost Kingdom had been wiped out by the Mother of all Lunar Cries a century before, an event so cataclysmic it had altered the landscape of northern Centra and killed the majority of its population.

When the numbers of Lunar hordes thinned decades later, people such as her Matron had been attracted to the empty landmasses for a more peaceful existence in a largely war-torn world. Although the lands also inevitably became an unpoliced haven for pirates, smugglers and drug barons of all nations.

The north-eastern subcontinent had been colonised by imperial Esthar shortly after Sorceress Reina had risen to power. Some new settlements were built, most notably Palamecia, along with a giant military production facility. In other cases, the abandoned Centran towns of old were reconstructed and occupied, such as Mysidia and Cornelia.

'If you wish to warn them about the invasion, there is really no need,' Thalassa said. 'I have the plans in my pocket. That's what Tyris gave me. We know how Esthar is going to attack, and we can plan accordingly while they're in Trabia.'

Gerra shook his head as he sat in another chair, then looked at the TV. He did not look surprised at the news reports as he said, 'It will make no difference. Unless I can get to the western leaders first, Galbadia will fall. You do not have the strength to oppose them. I know this for a fact.'

'Carbuncle suspects that you don't belong in this world.' Thalassa said carefully.

'Carbuncle would be correct,' Gerra replied, looking back at her. 'I don't belong here, but unfortunately, I'm here to stay.'

'You're from the future, aren't you?'

Gerra nodded. 'In my time, Sorceress Reina won the Third – and last – Sorceress War, a couple of centuries before I was born. The western allies and remaining SeeDs are vastly outnumbered and lose the Battle of the Great Plains. The sea invasion is theatrical, as the Galbadians could not muster a second force large enough to oppose it. Reina flies straight for Galbadia City and hangs her banners from the Arch of Triumph and the Presidential Palace.'

The old name of Galbadia's capital had been restored following the abrupt end of the Deling dictatorship. It was apparently still called Galbadia City centuries later, Thalassa observed.

'The Empress succeeds in enslaving the Guardian of Trabia with one of her diadems, and her Knight dies trying to save her. Later, on the Great Plains, the Blue Mage confronts the Guardian. But she cannot bring herself to strike her close friend down, and is killed instead. At the city, the Lionheart is cut off from his Sorceress by Agamemnon Zebalga and the Praetorians. The Empress crushes him. Now standing alone against both the Empress and the Guardian of Trabia, Sorceress Rinoa stands no chance, and is also killed. Then, the Empress is free to dispose of Selphie, unifying the Great Hyne's complete Half for the first time since His fall.'

Gerra paused for Thalassa to silently process the information.

'Oh, Hyne,' she whispered.

'Even He couldn't stop the Empress, after that battle. She becomes as powerful as Him, even more so with her enslaved Guardian Forces.

'The survivors of the battle, along with the last remaining SeeDs, attempt to regroup. Now led by the Torama Fang, they flee to Wilburn for a last stand. The canyon citadel is quickly blockaded. The Empress completes the siege by cutting off the mountain passes into the city. Rather than delay the inevitable, the Galbadians surrender the SeeDs. Although Reina had promised mercy, she kills the last SeeDs personally on the pretext of avenging Adel.'

Gerra switched to past tense.

'This effectively marked the end of the war. After, Reina set about bringing all the free Guardian Forces under her control, siphoning their raw energy to aid further expansion of the Empire. The GFs had been largely divided since their civil war of legend. Reina leaves Eden until last, to ensure she is powerful enough to imprison him. Defeating the Elder GF, she junctions with Eden herself, and becomes nigh on unstoppable. In conquering every last GF her world domination was absolute. Reina had become the ultimate sorceress, her power superseding that of the Great Hyne.'

Gerra stopped before his next statement.

'She started to call herself Ultimecia.'

Thalassa shuddered inwardly upon hearing the name of the Sorceress from the future, who had wreaked so much havoc across time.

'I will call her Reina no longer. Unbeknownst to Ultimecia, by syphoning the GF's life force she was disrupting the natural order of elemental balance in the world. I mean, legend tells us that the Elder Guardian Forces created the elemental GFs to oppose one another. Gaia to oppose Pandemonium, Shiva to oppose Rubicante, Leviathan to oppose Raijin – before some of those GFs were split.'

Gerra trailed off, sadness creeping into his voice in the first display of any emotion. Until now, he had told the story as though reciting a history lecture.

'I learned this from Odine, the Empress' chief researcher. Ultimecia refused to listen to reason about the GFs. Instead, she believed she was being undermined by Hyne Himself, thinking He had grown fearful of her for accumulating His whole Half. After two centuries, global warming had sped to unprecedented levels. Desertification had accelerated to cover most of Galbadia. Esthar, along with Dollet, had become even hotter and dryer, blighted with constant drought. Most of Balamb was reclaimed by the sea, with only the fire mountain above the surface. Timber and the Grandidi saw mass deforestation. Trabia had become too cold for human habitation.'

Thalassa did not know what to say to any of this. Carbuncle confirmed that Gerra spoke the truth; he could not lie to her without the GF knowing.

'All the sentient races save for the cactuars are extinct; the tonberries, moogles and chocobos are all gone. Ultimecia had all of the shumi and moombas killed in what was nothing short of ethnic cleansing. I'd learned much about how the world had been before the Age of Ultimecia,' Gerra noted. 'I'm pleased I've been able to see it with my own eyes, even if it is on the verge of being ruined.'

'How do you figure into this?' Thalassa suddenly asked.

Gerra hesitated, then said, 'I'm Ultimecia's Knight.'

Her eyes went wide but she held her tongue, waiting for him to elaborate. Gerra's eyes moved from her to the TV, to the dagger laying between them and back again.

He sighed. 'I've served as Ultimecia's Knight since I was eighteen. You must understand that I was a fundamentally different person back then. Becoming Ultimecia's Knight is the highest honour one can have in my time. Like I said, it's a very dark realm where the weak cannot survive. My parents died when I was very young; I don't remember them. I spent most of my childhood in hard labour, opting to be trained in a gladiator school as opposed to doing military service. The latter is almost pointless when, save for White SeeD and the Red Reaver, there is no opposition left to the Empress.'

'The Red Reaver?' Thalassa interjected.

'Gilgamesh.'

'Oh. He never does find a way back to his home world, then,' she said sadly.

'From the age of fifteen I was fighting to the death on the Sands. I won a tournament to become Ultimecia's Knight three years later.' Gerra looked momentarily pained.

'What changed?'

'It started when I realised Ultimecia would never be satisfied. She had achieved absolute power but would often speak of finding ways to get even more. She would talk about finding the Interdimensional Rift to conquer other realms; or of finding the legendary Griever to complete her conquest of the Guardian Forces; or of even challenging Hyne Himself and taking his other Half. After a Lunar Cry struck Timber, Ultimecia had already travelled to the Moon and back to see if Hyne's spirit truly resided there. Her challenge remained unanswered, but she returned with some of the beasts she keeps within her castle.'

Gerra stopped speaking, resuming after a couple of seconds.

'Ultimecia would also theorise over opening a portal to the past, and commanded Odine to find a way, as the Junction Machine Ellone had its limits. She would speak of intervening in Hyne's Fall so she could take His complete power, or of drawing the power from every Sorceress that had ever lived. Even of altering history and becoming the world's sole ruler from the dawn of time.'

When Gerra paused again, Thalassa nodded wordlessly.

'Some time ago, a settlement of hunter gatherers appeared outside the Empire's capital city, Adel. Except they were dressed like nomads from ancient times and spoke in a completely different dialect. When the city guards challenged them, the nomads were hostile; the guards were forced to kill most of them in self-defense. Not only that, one of our logistical convoys reported having to stop when what resembled one of the old Centran cities had materialised in the middle of a road. Our soldiers tried to enter the city but were confronted by the old Centran hoplites, who adopted a phalanx at the gates and demanded they turn back.'

Gerra continued. 'During this time, we'd had similar reports from all provinces of the Empire. We feared a revolt, as Ultimecia was nowhere to be found. Then, after several hours, everything went back to normal. That city in the middle of the road had vanished without a trace, so we ordered an excavation, and sure enough, the ruins were there. It led me and Odine to one conclusion: that at some point in the future, Ultimecia had attempted to meddle with time, as the one we served had alluded to. We decided to act.'

Thalassa finally spoke. 'You were right. Ultimecia did compress time, after using Ellone to possess a young Adel in ancient Centra. But she was stopped shortly after by the heroes of the last war – including my father – who anticipated the spell and used it to travel directly to Ultimecia's castle.' She gauged Gerra's reaction, and he was looking at her curiously. 'But I'm assuming this was later than your era, Gerra. That castle, Pop said, was falling into ruin. It was full of the deadliest of monsters, either loyal to Ultimecia or warped by her. Pop said Ultimecia had no human followers. Nor a Knight.'

'It wasn't easy,' Gerra carried on, 'but Odine managed to improve upon the JME developed by his ancestor, all the while convincing Ultimecia it was impossible to send a full being through time. Developed more than two centuries before, there had been no attempt to improve the JME after Ultimecia first came to power. Successful, he named the device Ellone II. Odine and I decided I would come to this year, as the Battle of the Great Plains marked a turning point in world history. The only other time may have been the Battle of Balamb, but we didn't believe the alliances against Ultimecia were strong enough then.

'I knew it was to be a one-way journey,' Gerra stated, 'and I ensured Ellone II would be destroyed following my departure so no one could follow me through. Except the Empress learned of my betrayal at the eleventh hour. She sent Leo – the head of imperial forces – along with her Praetorians, to stop me. No doubt this was because we destroyed the JME, as well. Although it would have been difficult for Ultimecia to discover the year I travelled to, we didn't want to chance her finding out and possessing one of the Sorceresses opposed to her past self. The Empress would have known the traitor could have only been me or Odine, as she would have done a mind contact with Leo and the Praetorians, and we were the only others who had access to the JME.'

Gerra ceased speaking again, his eyes going downcast for a moment.

'My treachery must have cut Ultimecia deeply for her not to come and stop me herself,' he said, with a hint of remorse. His eyes met Thalassa's again. 'Anyway, I'm here now. Only Leo managed to get inside, and he's here, too.' Gerra nodded towards the TV, which had looped the news headlines several times as he had been telling his story. 'He's the one who killed those soldiers last night, and those monsters were Odine's specimens.'

Gerra lapsed into silence, watching the TV, which Thalassa took to mean he had finished his tale. She remembered her bag from the breakfast stand and knew the contents had long since gone cold. With a sigh, she offered the cold bacon roll to Gerra and put the coffee in the room's cheap microwave.

'Do you know where Leo is?' she asked.

'No,' he answered with his mouth full. After swallowing the bite, he added, 'Leo's devotion to the Empress is absolute; a true man of honour. He'll find a way out of FH and try to contact Ultimecia. Which could be very dangerous, if she looks into his mind and learns of the future.'

Thalassa remained leaning against the kitchen worktop, not appreciating the warmed-up coffee. Everything this man from the future had said was running circles in her mind, making her head hurt. It was too much to process, and too surreal. But Carbuncle knew it to be true.

'So, how do you propose to turn the tide of the coming battle?' she wondered.

'The free GFs,' Gerra replied. 'Ultimecia didn't conquer them all until after Galbadia had fallen. The Children of Fate parted with most of them following the last war, after the memory loss was made public. Some were present in Galbadia, including Bahamut, but it wasn't enough. You need to seek their aid again before Esthar's invasion. Especially Eden, who was not taken until last, and was junctioned with Rinoa in the Second Sorceress War. Only a Descendant of Hyne can junction with an Elder Guardian Force, though there are still three opposed to Ultimecia.'

'You haven't left us a great deal of time,' Thalassa pointed out. 'Tyris said the invasion of Galbadia is imminent.'

'What's the date?' he asked her.

'March 17th,' she said immediately. It would have been her father's thirty-eighth nameday. Then she realised that Gerra would want to know the year, and added, '5021 AH.'

But Gerra's eyes widened. 'Hynedamn it!' he cursed. 'I was supposed to be here earlier than that! Not years before, but long enough to rally the GFs and the enemies of the Empire!' He left his chair and paced to the window. 'Odine knew this was possible; a timeslip of a few months is inconsequential over a few hundred years. But it could mean the Planet for us.'

Thalassa said nothing to this.

Gerra shrugged. 'This generation was reluctant to spend long periods of time junctioned with GFs, due to the negativity. It shouldn't take long for SeeD to recruit the GFs again. They're still mobile; they can do it a lot quicker than Esthar can. Odine believed that once the GFs are aware of the danger posed to them, they will rapidly stand with their old summoners.'

Thalassa thought for a moment. She had been junctioned with Carbuncle for a few years, but it was largely for the GF's own protection. He was being hunted by Esthar.

Putting the half-eaten roll down, Gerra turned to her. 'Send word to the Guardian of Trabia. If we can prevent her being enslaved by Ultimecia, it will also make a difference in Galbadia. Then contact Fury Caraway and SeeD. Tell them who I am if you wish. If not, say your friend Tyris warned you that Esthar is on the march and Ultimecia is already a lot stronger than anticipated. That if they don't junction with the free GFs, the war will be lost.'

The former was not going to be easy. Only Squall and Rinoa knew Selphie's location, or so she had thought. SeeD now had their old communications intranet hidden deep within the dark web, so she could contact Squall and her own leader, Kurin. She was also in contact with Rhodry Blaen, a veteran SeeD residing in his native Trabia.

Taking out her encrypted satellite phone, she said, 'Give me half an hour.'