CHAPTER 18:
OBLIVION
The laughter that Zidane and Harry indulged in was cathartic, relieved laughter. But soon, they realised that a more braying, mocking, lilting note had entered the merriment. Someone else was laughing. Someone whom they didn't want to hear.
The pair of them whirled to find Kuja standing in a nearby doorway, his laughter now dying down to chuckles. "Forgive me, but I thought the mirth rather infectious," Kuja said, striding into the ruined observatory. "By all means, continue. I think laughter is one of the few things that should be shared."
"Ram it, Kuja," Zidane retorted.
"Oh? And here I was about to praise you for your vanquishing of Garland, brother. You truly are a most extraordinary Genome, Zidane, worthy of my love."
"Kuja…one, I don't think you know what love is. Two, you can stick your praise somewhere unpleasant. And three, I didn't kill Garland. That bastard sent me to sleep."
Kuja caught the implication immediately. He looked at the wreckage of the room again, a wry eyebrow rising. "Ah, yes. I recognise that shape of the blast damage. It seems that young Harry had a conniption, and thus fell into Trance. And unlike myself, Garland didn't come out unscathed. Or should that be un-Scathed?" He tittered, before reaching out and plucking Garland's head off the ground. "Alas, poor Garland. I knew him well…unfortunately. Where are your gibes now? Your threats? Your plans?" He laughed jeeringly, the sound echoing around the room.
"This is not amusing," Garland said.
"Oh, but it is! An entity thousands of years old, the most powerful being on Terra…well, you were, anyway. And you have become undone by the fury of a child not even ten! He didn't even use an Eidolon, the very power you feared, Garland! Can't you see the irony, Garland! No, of course not. The only thing in you remotely like irony is the iron they used for your body's alloy." Kuja then smiled down at Harry. "Would you like a hug of congratulations, Harry? Consider it a boon from the new ruler of Terra and Gaia. Hmm, but what to do? Allow the assimilation process to continue, and rule over a revived Terra? Or rule over Gaia, destroy Terra? I find the concept of ruling over Gaia more interesting, actually. Terra's little more than a dead world. A revenant planet, feeding on the life of another world."
"All life is death…" Garland rasped. "It must kill other life to survive. Sometimes, it even kills those with whom it shares their blood. To live is to give life meaning, but in order to survive, other lives must be taken. A mature civilisation becomes aware of this paradox. Terra's souls were to sleep until they forgot such banal nonsense. Until they could awaken as beings that transcended life and death."
"I've heard that before," Kuja sneered. "I'm sick of your lectures, Garland. Terra means nothing to me anymore. I've made my choice. Gaia will become my kingdom. Terra will die. Its time has long since passed. But my kingdom…it will be eternal, like me."
His malevolent laughter was soon matched by that from Garland. Kuja's laughter soon died away when he realised Garland was laughing. "What's so funny, Garland?" he asked, a puzzled look on his face.
"You think yourself eternal," Garland rasped. "You are anything but, defective Genome. Did you think I would allow you to live forever? Unfettered, unchecked? Most Genomes are immortal, true, but it only takes a slight alteration to make them mortal. And you were too dangerous to allow to be immortal. I altered you so that, once Zidane came into his own power, you would soon die."
"You lie," Kuja said, his face twisted in anger, fear, and desperation. A myriad of emotions warred across his face. "You're lying! You're trying to mar my victory, Garland! MY VICTORY OVER YOU!"
Garland chuckled again, just as Garnet and the others entered the room, ready to do battle. "You were created to destroy. But in the end, you are as mortal as those golems you created on Gaia. I am not without a sense of irony, despite what you think, Kuja, and I find this truly fitting. You will die, long before you can establish any kingdom, anything to leave a permanent mark on the world. Do you understand the full depth of your folly in defying me? From nothing you came…and to nothing, you will return."
For a moment, Harry felt truly sorry for Kuja. The lost look on his face, the eyes glittering with tears of despair…they were the look of someone who had had the metaphorical rug pulled out from underneath them. When he spoke next, it was in the tone of a lost child. "…I will die? Lose my soul?" Then, he began to cry, tears running down his face, great heaving sobs exiting his frame…but then, the sobs transformed into cracked, braying giggles, which changed to chuckles…and then into guffaws, his face twisted into a parody of mirth, deranged and dangerous, his eyes wide, his mouth open wide, showing more teeth than good cheer as he laughed that horrid, horrid laugh.
"Kuja?" Zidane asked, looking as afraid as Harry felt.
Harry, summon me now, Yojimbo spoke into his mind. I need to put this mad dog down right now.
But Harry was frozen as Kuja continued to cackle. "What comedy!" Kuja yelled. "What truly dark comedy! How fitting and hilarious! Zidane, Vivi, Garnet, tell me it's ironic! I am so like those Black Mages I despise! Don't you see it?! DON'T YOU SEE IT?! The man who brought so much chaos and destruction to Gaia…condemned to die like the worthless dolls I had created!" He continued to roar with laughter, deranged, cracked, and dangerous.
But the silence that followed was even more frightening still. Because Harry could see the gears turning in Kuja's head. "Kuja?" Zidane asked again.
"No…" Kuja said, in a too-calm tone of voice. Suddenly, he crushed Garland's head. "Nothing deserves to exist without me. Nothing…and nobody." This last was growled out, and then, suddenly, light flared around Kuja. A blinding light that seemed alive…and yet, sickly. And was certainly familiar to all of those present.
"Trance!" Garnet exclaimed. "He's going into Trance!"
"But of course I am, my dear canary," Kuja said, all too calmly as his transformation was revealed. He seemed to be covered in blood red fur, or perhaps feathers, his tail lashing agitatedly hither and thither. His exposed skin was deathly pale. It was similar to Zidane's own Trance…and yet, so wrong. "I took the power of multiple souls from the Invincible…all willing and ready to help me. Including your mother's soul, Garnet. Now, they will help me put an end to Terra, then to Gaia, and ALL OTHER WORLDS!"
With that, energy surrounded Kuja, and he shot through the roof, causing a good chunk of it to shatter outwards, little rubble thankfully falling in. Finally heeding Yojimbo, Harry summoned the Eidolon, who glared at the hole, before turning to face the others. "Garnet, Eiko! Summon Bahamut and Madeen! Hurry!" he roared.
Startled into obeying, the other two summoners summoned up their Eidolons, Bahamut hovering just above them. "What are you going to do?" Garnet demanded.
"We're going to stop Kuja, or at least buy you enough time to escape from Terra!" Yojimbo yelled, leaping onto Bahamut's back. "Get the Genomes and evacuate them to the Invincible, you might be able to get them back to Gaia! HURRY!"
As the three Eidolons flew off in pursuit of Kuja, Zidane looked at the others. "Okay, you heard the man. GO!"
By the time the Eidolons caught up with Kuja, it was too late. The maddened Genome flung a bolt of eldritch energy through the air, and another, smashing the Ultima spells into the various structures. The Eidolons could sense that these mushroom-like structures helped keep the remaining energy of Terra in a delicate equilibrium. Start destroying these, and you risked upsetting the balance.
Which seemed to be Kuja's plan.
Kuja saw them coming, and flung another blast at the Eidolons. Yojimbo hung onto Bahamut as the draconic Eidolon swerved to avoid it, as did Madeen. "You're too late," Kuja sneered. "Terra's collapse has begun." He fired off more Ultima blasts at the structures. "It'll be mere minutes before Terra dies, and your precious summoners along with them."
"You'll die with Terra," Yojimbo pointed out.
"There are ways between Gaia and Terra other than the Shimmering Isle," Kuja sneered, flinging another blast as he did so. "I can make it to the Iifa Tree's true structure before everything goes up. And through there, I can access the crystal of Gaia, and through that crystal, I can access Memoria…the source of all memories, all life, all worlds. Garland once spoke to me of a Master Crystal, from which all creation springs. If I destroy it, then all creation will go down with me."
"And why should others suffer because of your mortality? Go into oblivion, and drag no others with you!" Yojimbo roared.
"To hell with what you say!" Kuja snarled. "NOTHING DESERVES TO LIVE WITHOUT ME! ESPECIALLY NOT EIDOLONS AND THEIR SUMMONERS! I WILL FINISH WHAT I SHOULD HAVE LONG AGO!"
"Why do you help them?" Mikoto asked, as she watched the Genomes (and a couple of Moogles who had been in Bran Bal) being hurried to the Invincible, which was at the base of Pandemonium. "They are empty vessels."
"So were the Black Mages, once," Zidane said. "But maybe they can grow beyond that, Mikoto."
"But what's the point?" Mikoto asked. "Garland is dead, and soon, all of Terra will follow him."
"I asked myself the same question a few times," Zidane said. "What's the point? I didn't find the answer…but maybe it was enough just to try and find a point. I've got my friends. That's what matters. Maybe you can find your own reason to be, Mikoto."
Mikoto looked pensive, but as another explosion rocked Bran Bal, she looked more eager to get away from this situation. Garnet, meanwhile, looked up at the sky, where Kuja was battling the Eidolons. "Why did Yojimbo have us summon them?" she asked.
"I think he had a plan," Harry said.
"Let's hope he does! Kuja's gone crazy! Oh no, Mog's been killed!" Eiko wailed as the latest explosion consumed Madeen. "I mean, she's still alive, but…she can't fight for a while."
"Onto the airship!" Zidane urged them. "Go, go, GO!"
"You see?!" Kuja crowed as Madeen vanished in a flare of light. "You pathetic Eidolons are NOTHING compared to the power of Trance!"
Yojimbo glared at Kuja, before saying quietly to Bahamut, "Charge at him. We've only got one shot. I will use Zanmato on him."
"Very well," Bahamut said in a low, tenebrous rumble.
Zanmato. The most powerful of Yojimbo's swords. The Demon-Cutting Sword. Yojimbo remembered his previous summoners paying him a premium to slay the deadliest of foes. He remembered Lady Yuna, back on Spira, using him to slay the Dark Aeons Yevon had set upon her. It required a lot of money, but he had been paid that and more long ago when he was first bound to Harry as one of his Eidolons. It hadn't been used for so long, save to entertain the Dwarves of Conde Petie.
Zanmato thirsted for blood. Kuja's would do nicely.
As Bahamut charged at Kuja, roaring a berserk roar, Yojimbo got ready. If hit by an attack, he would disperse until he was ready to be re-summoned. So he didn't fear death. Neither did Bahamut. Death was only temporary to an Eidolon…unless Kuja succeeded in his mad plan to destroy the Master Crystal. It could be done, but it was inconceivable. But Kuja thought otherwise. So he had to be stopped.
Kuja flung a blast at Bahamut, disintegrating the dragon, and leaving Yojimbo flying forward on sheer momentum, Zanmato at the ready, screaming a battlecry. Kuja realised what he was about to do, and flung another Ultima blast, just as Yojimbo drew his sword and slashed at Kuja.
For a moment, time seemed to still, as Kuja turned to see Yojimbo, his sword drawn, fade into nothingness, terminally disrupted by the blast. The sneer at the Eidolon having missed his attack died when he felt the lower half of his body simply drop away. He watched, dumbly, as it dropped into the conflagration below, trailing blood and entrails.
It took Kuja a moment to realise that he was about to die, along with Terra. That moment of realisation was all he had left, before darkness claimed his mind and soul, and the rest of his body, after dropping into the inferno below, was consumed by fire. He didn't even see the Invincible leaving Terra behind.
As the Invincible charged through the dimensional portal, chased by the conflagration of Terra's destruction, Harry gasped, his eyes wide as Yojimbo told him what had happened. Bahamut and Madeen had done the same to Garnet and Eiko…but Yojimbo had told them what they needed to know.
Quietly, he said, "Kuja's dead. It's over."
There was no cheering, no celebration, at least for now. Only relief that they were still alive, even if it was at the expense of Terra. In another time, Kuja's madness and despair would have led him to the Master Crystal, the World Crystal, and his attempt to destroy it would have summoned Necron, the Darkness of Eternity, the living embodiment of oblivion. Here, that danger had been averted.
Even so, the scars of this time would be around for a long time yet…
CHAPTER 18 ANNOTATIONS:
Sorry about this being an abrupt finale. Okay, there's going to be an epilogue, but frankly, I didn't want to have to deal with that Memoria crap, or Necron, or anything else. And I had this inspiration for the Eidolons working together to stop Kuja. Okay, it wasn't before he managed to begin the process of Terra's destruction, but that does wrap things up. And it's fitting that it's one of Harry's Eidolons that performs the coup de grace. And to be frank, I found Kuja's sudden change of heart at the end of the game to be a little hard to believe. Given the positive response to his end in another of my crossovers, Xenophilia, I thought this would work.
The dialogue at the beginning of the chapter was partly shaped from a review left by long-time reviewer Zane Tribal Tyne Alexandros.
No numbered annotations this time.