I knew everything. I remembered… everything.

I remembered a time of pain and utter hatred.

And more than my hatred was my will. I had been entrusted with this will from my comrades. I had to win.

And more than my will was my fear, that I had let them down.

For I had been ignorant these many years. And I knew - I KNEW - that Ajora was before me, in my sister's body. The way she stood. The supreme arrogance of one who thought they were a god.

Even if her words were sweet and caring, I would know just from how she held herself. I could not mistake mine mortal enemy.

How long had she known… and what could I do about it?

The second the hilt touched my fingers, I freed the blade. It sang through the air.

Partly in anger. Partly in fear.

More than anything, I just wanted to bluff.

The basics worked everywhere, and when none of the basics are left… you bluff.

You bluff fast, and you bluff without concern.

It doesn't even matter what you bluff, just that you do.

I recalled that Ajora's warrior instincts had been dulled.

All right.

"Fall, Demon!" I cried.

I slashed with all my strength, in a deadly curve that would be centimeters too short to behead the body of my precious sister.

I learned several things.

First, Ajora was definitely in my sister.

Second, she wasn't that skilled. She had made her move to retreat almost the instant I had begun to pull the blade free. Thanks to that, my plan to stop the strike short was not revealed.

According to legend, she had been a historic warrior that laid the foundations of modern swordsmanship.

But that was a long, long time ago. Even in the future, she had used raw power and special techniques to cover a deficiency in simple battle sense. I had been unimpressed.

Third, and this was important….

She had something to fear from me.

I had all of my future self's knowledge and techniques, but none of the muscle or arcane reserves.

And she was the same!

"What are you doing, fool?!" Ajora snarled, twisting Alma's pretty face into a distorted visage of rage and disgust. "Your sister, am I not?"

"Mine beloved sister died a long time ago." I said calmly. "Far away, in the distant future, amongst a cemetery of warships. Ajora, it was you who took her from me!"

Amidst my howls of rage, I charged upon Ajora.

Now.

In my heart, what I said was not true. When I came to this world, my future self had been soaked in rage and sorrow. But I grew up as this time's Ramza. Aside from nightmares, I had no conscious recollection of that pain and murderous drive.

And once hatred is put down, even but for a moment, it is twice again so hard to reclaim.

And my years with my beloved sister and my simple existence had soothed me.

These old wounds had scarred over, and would never go away, but I loved my current sister Just the same as Alma of the future.

And I had a duty, and a role, and a dead man's last wish. More than one, and more than men, and myself included. Our whole band who had turned from the comfort of the world and the people, fighting demons and burning house banners for warmth, simply cried out that we must win.

But above all, it was my same disposition. I was the one who stood between my love's and my demons.

I was the blade my foes would have to break before they touched those I held dear.

I never understood this about myself. I had thought that, perhaps, the romantic notion that it was in my knight's blood might hold true.

But it was due to my former self, who had wept alone upon a graveyard of swords and staves.

I could not bury one more.

Even so, I struck at Alma's body with smooth and dangerous swings of my blade.

I couldn't barter with Ajora. I had to force her out of Alma's body.

I didn't know how to do that.

But the basics worked everywhere.

The sword, the shield, the riposte, the bluff.

Always, the bluff.

For now, I would keep bluffing. I would try to put her on the back foot, and hope that she would reveal her secrets in a panic.

Along with this logic, I took a half-step forwards and disappeared.

Ajora cursed. "You can still do that?!" She demanded.

In the next moment, I had teleported behind my sister's body to grasp her by the upper arm.

With an apology in my heart, and ice in my gut, I shoulder-threw her through the second story window and took one more half step.

I reappeared on the bottom floor, while my sister's body was still in freefall.

I could threaten to blast her out of the sky with a Holy Explosion. Else, I could skewer her with a Crush Stab.

But if it came to it, I would have to catch her gently in my arms.

It was time to test the faith of the person once called Saint Ajora.

When she blinked out of existence, and reappeared behind me with an incensed expression, I knew I had her.

Whatever she may say, however she may bluff, it was only with words.

I was ready to bluff with my sword. It was my pace from here on out.

"Brother dearest." Ajora said with fake sweetness. "Don't you realize what it is that you do? You can't kill me, don't you see?"

"You seem afraid enough of heights." I reasoned to the girl in a nightgown. I myself was in a blue pajama outfit for this nighttime dance of death. "I think you'll die just fine, Ajora."

"…You're serious about this." She said, her expression filled with distaste. "And I was so benevolent towards you. I wanted… peace. Don't your type all love peace?"

"Like hell." I said.

"It's true. I care not for individual days. We can count yours out together, mortal. And when your days are over, I'll have what's left. Isn't that fine? I was human once. I too know compromise"

"That's not peace." I said. "That's a temporary ceasefire."

"Compromise, mortal. You lay down your miracles, and I lay down all my demons."

Now what in the light was that supposed to mean?

But despite everything, I could feel the tension in the air. I understood the flow of battle had arrived at an irrevocable point. Like a tidal wave that was born thousands of miles away crashing into the shore, this was our inevitable conclusion.

But I had to protect Alma. I had to.

But I couldn't let Ajora go.

Somehow, it was the same dilemma I had faced with my brother and Ovelia. At the time, I had chosen Ovelia. I could care for Alma no less.

But…

Tch.

What could I do about it? It's so cowardly that Ajora hides in my sister's body! What good are my cherished blade arts here? For what did I become a Holy Knight for, when I can't protect the innocent?

In the end, I'm just forced into a corner and have to bluff!

It's no different from the future!

Have I learned nothing of worth?

I knew the answer intuitively. I couldn't find love. I couldn't save brother. I'm still trying to solve things recklessly.

I haven't learned anything, and I have never learned anything.

I am neither a great strategist, nor a great warrior, nor even a great leader.

I was simply blessed with friends that were more talented than I, willing to follow me.

Without them, even with all of their power ingrained into me, what was I good for…

…

Ah. Power. I hadn't the muscle, but I knew how to use every bit of what I had. I hadn't the magical reserves, but I knew every spell in the book.

All I had left of my friends was their power. It was the least of what made them warriors, but it was far more than this solitary demon.

...That's it. There is a way to force her out. There is a poison she cannot resist.

That venomous pride.

I stood tall and straight, imperiously. "Ajora." I said slowly, tilting my head back. "Despite myself, I'll accept your last words."

"Absurd. I think the boy misreads the situation." Ajora said coyly.

"No." I said, teleporting before her directly. "You're the one that's being slow to the point."

She struck me on reflex, and I took it.

My delicate little sister's fist struck me on the nose, and I didn't even flinch.

"Weak." I said. "You aren't what you used to be Ajora. Do you have traps? Bring out your traps, and let me crush them. Do you have your demons with you? Bring forth your demons, and let me trample them. You and I are the same, but you don't have that monstrous body to support you now. You're just a little girl. You'll do as you're told."

Now Alma rarely, if ever, had done as she was told.

But that wasn't my point.

My point was the tables were turned, and I wanted her to know it. I wanted her to feel that pain of losing due to pure statistical disadvantage. She didn't have the power to negotiate with me, whatsoever.

In a flash she blinked away from me, a furious look on her face. "You. You dare! You impetuous little nothing! You lecture me on power?!" She screamed in an accelerating tone. "I, the angel of blood and death?"

"What a nickname. You are nothing of the sort. You were human, and you are human again. You're neither a saint nor a monster. Just a girl past her bedtime." I said while advancing slowly.

"I haven't been just a girl in a very, very long time, stupid saint." Ajora said darkly.

And in the thick of the night, with only the moon above us and the curious guards peeking their heads out, I saw my sister's hands burn gently. "And I am a long, long way from being without recourse! And I am far and beyond what you're human lifespan could comprehend! I have outgrown you, Saint!"

She spat the word again like a curse as her hands burned hotter and hotter.

I didn't understand that.

Who was a saint now? Me?

Since when?

I wasn't that good of a man.

Or… what really made a saint? And did it matter?

It mattered to her. Very much so.

Anyways, Ajora chanted her spell more quickly than any time mage I had ever seen. Rather than words, a shrill hiss seemed to escape my sisters lips. An entire essay compacted too tightly to discern.

"Hell may not take one such as you," she declared while striding towards me imperiously, "but I'll burn you down until you see hell on this land of yours!"

"People like you are all the same." I declared while walking forwards to match her self-importance. "You all justify your acts with power. And when that power's gone, you deny it. You can't bear to think that the world's fallen onto it's back, and you're on the bottom now. And if I want my sister back, I'll have her. And if I want you to fry, you'll fry." I said, sheathing my blade and cracking my knuckles. "You yourself must agree - 'tis the fate of the second best."

"Ohh, I know that." She said venomously. "Ohhh, but I had thrown away my humanity so quickly on the cusp of that knowledge. I had cast aside that good and that weakness of mineself, and thou who dare not can never challenge me. Not if I were in a slug, nor a snail. I am forever your better, little child!"

"Alma was never a fighter."

"She has magic enough for a lout such as thee!"

And she struck.

And it was… extremely heavy.

I drew my blade Iaido style, and tried to cut the flame apart. But the magical blaze that eclipsed my line of sight was beyond me. It was… heavy!

Such a flame that defied reason!

It bore down on me, one solid spherical mass. It scalded my skin and it scorched my brother blade.

"Life is short… Bury!"

I slid the blade, burning hot white in my very hands, into the ground.

Work!

The flames crashed down upon me in a torrential explosion.

But in the aftermath of smoke, I knelt along with my melting blade coccooned safely inside a large crystal of stasis.

Good. It can be used that way as well.

Although… it seems my blade couldn't endure. It sank to the floor as a liquifying mass. A reflective puddle in the night, with a hilt sticking out of it.

It was the sword I had taken with me into the waterfall, and who had reborn with me into the light.

It could not endure.

Telling, perhaps, of my own fate.

But I'd save Alma from all this.

I long not for life, but for peace every day. If I cannot have peace, I need not the rest.

And I cannot have it while my enemy stands. So let me fight with no reserve, and leave this world no worse than I found it.

Ajora and I did not belong. If we exit together, what sort of Ivalice will come to pass?

Will there be no cause for war without her lust for blood, or is there enough evil left inside man? I have bet on a mankind's greatness to defeat the demon's greatness.

But oh, I dare not compare their evil. To say that the evil of man could lose to anyone…

But it will balance out. Mankind's good and evil deeds. Their compassion and envy. A tapestry of hills and valleys.

"Ajora…" I said slowly.

"What is it, monkey?"

"Is that all?" I asked calmly.

An application of chakra quietly repaired where parts of my sword had fused to my palms through heat.

"The demon that slew my friends is such a frail girl now… what a travesty." I explained with a disgusted look on my face. "Here I stand, man of one thousand battles. In one thousand battles, I have one thousand sacrifices. One thousand stratagems that chafe at my chivalry. One thousand goodbyes I daren't say aloud. And you, my foe, are so petty. What a meagre end to this waltz of blood we've weaved."

"You speak eloquently." Ajora growled, flames in her palms reflecting her mood. She burned white hot in rage. "Your self-eulogy is utterly profound, brother dearest."

"You're no sister, Ajora."

"Don't be certain." She said with a sick smile. "Don't you see? You and I came here together as babes. You fell into this time, into your body. And I fell into the one most suitable to me, thy sister. When she smiled, I saw. When you sat by the river bank and mourned thy mother in tears, I was there. For every intimacy I was a part, and with every word I feel your fear. Because the man whom could match me was an avatar of death with nothing to lose. But the boy before me now is the one whom stands in front and blocks arrows with his flesh. I declare thee a shield, blunt and heavy. Your claims to bleed me are nothing but jests. A clever plan, I'm sure. My brother is so clever after all. But he never could resist his sister's will."

I had to bluff this. "We'll see when we clash fists, Ajora." I promised. "Power won't lie to you."

"It never could." She agreed simply. "But oh fangless enemy, though this body may be weaker than yours, mine soul is strong. Mine bloodlust is superior. And all thy little knowledge can't help, for we are ones that grew up together." She said in a terrible whisper. "Brother dear."

And with a twist of her wrist, she flung her fire aside.

Damn, is that not the storeroom?

The fire reacted faster than myself. Before I could teleport out of place, the world was enveloped in orange and white.

Our home was a fortified castle, and held it's share of munitions and spare blades.

The explosive reaction that rang the ears was all too familiar. I was brought vividly back to the destruction of that tower, on a cold wintry day, with Tetra's body never to be found.

Tetra… where was she at this time? Hiding from the battle, surely, but where?

Or fast asleep?

Surely she was away from this.

Ah.

Alma.

I reached out to her as my consciousness faded. I saw her nightshrift billowing in the shockwave winds.

A mad and devilish smile on her pretty face.