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Final Fantasy VI: The Sands of Time

Book 1: The Begininng

Chapter 8 - Dream's End

Part 8.8 - The Master of the Skies

"That was some trick you pulled back there," Indie said to his moogle companion as they walked through the darkened streets of Narsille.

"Kupo!" was all Kumiro said in response.

Indie only chuckled at his friend's capricious nature and continued walking. The secret was out now. Kumiro could talk in human words if he really wanted to. Something about Dune had spooked the moogle to the point he felt he had to communicate with words, and not his usual moogle sounds. Indie didn't like what Kumiro had to say, but he trusted Dune, and right now, the city needed him and Kumiro.

There were few people on the streets now as Indie made his way to the ATLAS main tower. The quake had cleared the city of any stragglers, forcing them to flee for their lives or be swallowed by the shaking ground. Fires were raging unchecked all over the city, casting a dull red haze over everything, and that strange smoke Dune had warned them about was everywhere. Indie only caught glimpses of shadows flitting from one building to the next, dimly backlit by the flames and lightning, but he could hear the constant cries of fear and death everywhere. It was a somber journey through the once beautiful city, and Indie grieved that he had lived long enough to see his home brought to this.

Despite the dangers swirling around Indie, he walked confidently towards his destination in perfect safety. One of the great discoveries he had made after Phoenix Isle was the strange power of his moogle Kumiro to not only predict and read natural phenomena, but to manipulate them as well. This was the great secret of his ATLAS technology, and one that he had kept to himself for many years. Kumiro was able to control the weather in his immediate area, and Indie had studied and applied this limited effect on a grand scale with the invention of the ATLAS.

None of the moogles native to Narsille had displayed this ability, and Indie suspected that a part of the magical energies that preserved Phoenix Isle still flowed through his mysterious little friend. Now, he was using his friend as a sort of umbrella against the typhoon raging through Narsille. While the Master of Storms howled with his most ferocious energies around Indie, inside the protective range of Kumiro's power everything was calm. Even the lethal smoke would not pass through Kumiro's sphere of influence.

As Indie made his way deeper into the city, though, it became much more dangerous. Kumiro's powers worked against the elements, but not against the ravages of a crumbling city. Fires and flooding were rampant this far into the city, and Indie could tell that the immense mythril towers would not stand against the combined destructive force of nature's might much longer. Some of the buildings had already begun to fail, and huge chunks of glittering blue debris piled the twisted streets of Narsille's heart.

Indie wondered if the ATLAS tower was even still standing at this point, and if there really was anything one man could do in the face of such devastation. He knew he had come too far to turn back, and it wasn't like him to give into to pessimism and despair. Indie carefully picked his way past fallen rubble and turned vehicles, around devouring flames and rising floodwaters, and through hurricane-force winds and blinding rain until he finally found the foot of the hill that his tower had been built on. Craning his face upwards, he saw that the tower was still standing at the top of the steep hill and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Well, Kumiro, at least we didn't come all this way for a pile of scrap. Now comes the fun part. We climb."

"Ku-po!" The moogle said with the same determination as his master.

"It's not so bad for you," Indie said with a smile. "You've got wings. All I've got is this old stick."

Indie laughed grimly and set his feet firmly on what was left of the path up the hill. It was a torturously slow ascent, and Indie had to stop several times to lean on his staff and catch his breath. Kumiro waited patiently every step of the way, never leaving his master's side.

"Oy, I am getting too old for this," Indie said between ragged breaths. "I should have given myself more time. I'll never make it up this hill and back down again in two hours. Bismark will probably leave without me at this point." Indie paused and looked at his moogle friend, fluttering patiently just in front of him. "Well Kumiro, this city may be my grave after all. If it starts to look bad, I want you to get out of here and find someplace safe, you hear me?"

"Pu!" Kumiro said unhappily.

"Don't give me any guff," Indie said. "You can fly right on our of this city in no time at all, no matter what's going on in the sky. I can't. If I tell you to go, you go. Understand?"

"Puu..."

"Puu is right. Now, let's get to that tower before this hill falls apart."

Indie banged his staff once on the ground and forced himself up to the hill's summit. The ATLAS tower loomed over the two of them, standing just as stubbornly against the storm as they did. It was a tall spire of metal twisting high into the sky and tapering into a single long antenna at its top. Various smaller antennae and dishes jutted out from the main structure at every level, giving it a strange spiny appearance.

Normally there was a small group of Indie's most trusted scientists manning the tower at all times, but Indie could see no one from where he stood. There were no guards at the entrance, either, meaning any one could be lurking inside. Indie doubted there was a single soul still inside the building now, and confidently pushed the double doors open. Not surprisingly, the lights were off and the usual hum of machinery was gone. Indie knew all this tower's secrets, though, and he knew if he could make it to the ATLAS generator, he could make it work, despite the power outage.

"Well, Kumiro, it's time to put your brand of magic to the test, eh?" Indie said happily. He was always eager to explore the possibilities of the strange powers around him that defied scientific explanation. The world may be going to hell, but Indie was still a scientist, and this would be a grand experiment indeed. And if it worked...

The two climbed the spiraling staircase up, up, up all the way to the top of the deserted building. No power meant no elevators, and once again Indie cursed his old age. At the top floor Indie nearly fell over, hanging onto his staff and breathing heavily.

"Damn these old bones," Indie muttered as he got back to his feet slowly. "Kumiro, get the door, please."

The moogle flew over to the sturdy door that led outside, and pushed it open with all the strength his small frame could manage. A blast of wind and rain hit the two, nearly sucking them out of the building. The wind at this height was enough to hurl a person to their death like a doll, but Kumiro's weather-controlling power kept both of them safe from the storm's onslaught. Indie slowly dragged himself to the base of the tall antenna that capped the tower.

The famous ATLAS generator responsible for the paradise the Narsillians lived in was surprisingly small for the far-reaching effects it created. At the base of the antenna was a strange white dome with a faceted surface, like a giant spherical gemstone. At the moment, it was completely silent, and appeared to be as dead as the rest of the building. It was only three meters wide, and yet it had the power to control the weather of an entire region. The secret of this device's power was a notoriously well-kept secret, and only Indie himself knew the full extent of its inner workings.

"Let's get this over with," Indie grumbled, putting one aging hand on the surface of the dome, gripping his staff tightly with the other hand. He ran his hand over the surface gently like he was petting an animal. The device remained silent, but Indie's expert hand found the hidden catch that manually opened the dome to expose the mysterious innards of the machine. The dome gracefully twisted back like a blossoming flower, revealing a sight that would have baffled even the greatest minds of Narsille.

Inside the heart of the ATLAS rested a small red orb, with a hundred small wires connecting it to the various weather-controlling modules that made up the inside of the machine. This apple-sized orb was the sole power source of the machine, and the greatest secret of Narsille. Not even the top Committee members knew exactly how Indie's machine did what it did, and Indie had worked hard to keep it that way. Even if he tried to explain it, who would believe him? Magic was the stuff of fairy tales, after all.

This miraculous machine was a fusion of modern technology and ancient magic, and only someone who had seen such divine powers first-hand could appreciate the intricate beauty and wonderful simplicity of this machine. And it was so simple! The strange red orb was nothing more than a moogle's pom-pom, carefully hooked up to machines to harness, amplify, and direct its strange weather-influencing properties.

Long ago, Kumiro had willingly sacrificed the soft hair-like ball on his head for science. It had grown back like a regular hair after a few months, and ever since then Indie had been secretly harvesting his friend's pom-poms every few years to keep the machine active. Indie told no one of this odd ritual, and even his closest assistants never knew exactly what their boss did at the top of the ATLAS tower.

It was such an absurd idea that Indie wondered what they would do if he told them the truth. Probably lock him up as a madman. But his insanity had brought unparalleled peace to the city for thirty years. Now, that peace had come to an end at last, and Indie was afraid even he would be unable to stop the city's destruction at this late point. But he had to try.

"Alright, Kumiro, time to see if this works. You know what to do."

The moogle nodded gravely and flew over the ATLAS dome, hovering just above its open interior. With a deft clicking of his claws, Kumiro clipped his own pom-pom from his head and Indie caught it as it fell. Instantly he felt a change in pressure that meant the effects of Kumiro's power had lessened as soon as the pom-pom was removed. Indie knew he only had a brief window of time to remove the old pom-pom and attach the new one before its disconnected powers waned and became just an inert ball of fur.

With deft fingers Indie removed the tangle of wires from the old pom-pom and rearranged them around the new one. When he was finished he stepped back and waited. This was a long shot, but it was the only thing he could do for his city.

After a minute the red pom-pom began to vibrate, sending its foreign power through the circuits of the ATLAS mainframe. The machine hummed in tune with its vibrating red core, and Indie could feel something happening in the air around him. Would it be enough?

The wind that had been slowly pushing Indie harder and harder suddenly lessened, then ceased altogether. No rain fell around the device and its operator, and Indie felt a surge of warmth that told him the generator was working. He adjusted a few dials and watched as the humming grew louder. The range of the calming wave spread to the entire top of the tower, then slowly outwards into the city. Indie clapped his hands and shouted with joy. In a few hours the wave would encompass the entire city, and the storm would be over.

The moment of peace was cruelly short-lived. The wave spread outwards for a short distance, then came to halt only a few hundred meters from the tower. Something was preventing it from reaching any further. Indie cursed and looked around for the interfering source. The rising sphere of the ATLAS's influence had reached the bottom of the rolling thunderclouds above, and been repelled like an annoying insect.

A lightning bolt sliced through the air like a sword, striking the ATLAS antenna. An explosion of thunder and fire threw Indie and Kumiro to the floor of the tower's roof. Pieces of charred and twisted metal rained down on them like shrapnel, striking them both mercilessly. Indie covered his tiny friend, taking the brunt of the damage.

Another screaming bolt of lightning lit the entire area, revealing a loathsome sight Indie had hoped he would never see again.

Hovering smugly a little way from the tower was a great silvery serpent, its wide maw glittering with a gluttonous smile that Indie knew only too well. Leviathan had arrived to greet his new guests.

"Professor! How nice of you to visit me!" The booming voice of Leviathan vibrated through the air. Thunder was roaring all around him, and a continuous web of flickering lightning illuminated his vast form in the surrounding darkness.

Indie had been injured by the antenna's debris, but he still managed to stand with the help of his staff. Kumiro huddled around his master's feet, terrified. Indie looked Leviathan squarely in his massive eye, anger boiling to the surface.

"Levi, you devil! Get away from here!" Indie shouted.

Leviathan laughed, a gurgling sound echoing from deep in his throat. He swam through the air with blinding speed, stopping less than a meter from Indie. His staring eye faced the old man unblinkingly. The yellow fish's eye was as tall as Indie, and any other man would have cowered in terror at such an intimidating sight. Indie stood his ground and smiled grimly.

"You're days of scaring me are long over, Levi. I know you feed on the fear of others, and you won't get anything from me."

To drive his point home, Indie raised his staff and struck at the pale eye with as much force as he had left. Leviathan recoiled backwards in pain, his glowing fish eye going out like lamp.

"You'll pay for that," Leviathan hissed. "I was going to devour you quickly, but you deserve something much worse."

"Do you're worst, you coward." Indie said.

Leviathan roared in anger, then turned his other eye to Indie. This eye was a crackling void, filled with currents of electricity. Indie did not want to try his luck coming into contact with that maelstrom of magical energy.

Leviathan curled his long form into a tight mass, then stretched himself around the entire top of the tower, trapping Indie in a circle of death. His black eye still stared directly at Indie, tempting him to attack it like he did the other. With each lap, Leviathan tightened the circle, threatening to crush his victim to death.

"Kumiro...," Indie whispered while Leviathan was circling around them. "Remember what I said before? Get out of here. Now." Indie grabbed the moogle and tossed him straight up into the air.

"Kupo! Kupopopopo!" Kumiro tried to fly back down to Indie, but Indie gave him such a look that he stopped in mid-air, a baleful look on his face.

"GO!" Indie bellowed, raising his staff at his friend to ward him off.

"Puuuuuuu..." The moogle wailed as it flew up and away from his doomed master. He would follow his master's wishes, even now.

Indie watched crestfallen as his long-time companion disappeared into the distance, his mournful cry fading into the wind and rain. He turned his tear-streaked face back to Leviathan's encroaching mass, ready to defy the beast to his last breath. He stood straight up and struck the ground with his staff, silently beckoning the monster to come at him.

Leviathan paid no notice to the tiny white ball that flew away, only caring about exacting his revenge on Indie. He roared with laughter at Indie's determination, sending sparks of lightning into the area within his body to shake the tiny human's resolve.

Indie let the sparks strike him, still standing firm with his staff raised. Each spark felt like a thousand volts of electricity, and he knew he couldn't survive very many of them. But he also knew Leviathan would crush him before the sparks killed him, so he ignored the pain of his injuries and stood tall.

"You are a tough old man, Professor Ramsus Indra," Leviathan spoke almost respectfully. "You think you're about to die, don't you?" Leviathan laughed in his deep throaty way, tightening his coiled form closer and closer.

"I have secret for you," Leviathan spoke, lowering his voice the closer he got to Indie. He circled several more times, finally reaching his prey. Before his immense girth crushed the life out of Indie, he said in a harsh whisper, directly into Indie's ear:

"You will not die. You will join me, and with your power I will reign as king of this world, with the Goddess as my queen. That is your fate, old man." Leviathan laughed as he wrapped his body around the body of Indie, lifting the unconscious form off the ruined tower.

"It seems Phantom will be joining us momentarily with my other guest." Leviathan said to himself as he sped away from the tower with Indie in tow. "We had better prepare ourselves for my bride, Indie...or should I say Ramuh? Hahaha..."