"Take cover!" General Beatrix yelled at the top of her lungs, her voice barely audible over the rumble of a Trenoite heavy bomber raining death from above.
KRA-KOOOM!
"Yaaargh! It burns! Help me! Help meee!" an unfortunate soldier shrieked, caught in the blast of an incendiary bomb.
"THERE ARE CIVILIANS DOWN HERE, YOU FUCKING ASSHOLES!" Zidane howled in a broken voice at the hulking behemoth of a warship. "Where the hell's our cavalry?!"
"They're trying to break the enemy siege, but it will take time! They're too many!" the General answered.
"Dammit... if we don't shoot that thing down quick, there will be no one left to rescue!" the king exclaimed. "Any ideas?"
Beatrix scanned the blasted town square, looking for a way to fend off the enemy airship.
"There!" she exclaimed, pointing at an abandoned anti-aircraft battery, manned by a badly mutilated corpse. "Lanna! Friede! Follow me!"
"Yes, ma'am!" the two Alexandrian soldiers answered.
"Please stay here until we come back, sir. It's too dangerous out there," Beatrix said, but Zidane was having none of it.
"Aw hell, no! I'm not staying put while you three risk your necks!" the Genome retorted. "Just tell me how can I help, and I'll do my best."
Beatrix opened her mouth to protest, but a stray bomb demolished the roof of the house they were hiding in, throwing any hopes of keeping the king safe out the window.
"All right... just keep your head low and try not to get shot, sir," she sighed. "On the count of three. One... two... three!"
The squad raced across the ruins of the village, trying to get to the anti-air cannon unnoticed. Not far from there, the rest of Beatrix's dwindling regiment fought a losing battle against Treno's better equipped troops, trying to delay their advance until the trapped townsfolk could be evacuated.
"Friede! Lanna! Watch our backs! No one gets close to this gun, is that clear?" Beatrix ordered as she dragged the dead gunner away from his seat. "You wanted to help, sir? Now's your chance."
"Just tell me what to do and consider it done!" Zidane replied as he helped her lower the body to the ground.
"See those Firaga shells over there? Help me load them into the cannon."
"Right away!" the Genome answered, loading a shell into the gun while Beatrix aimed for the rampaging bomber. "Ammo loaded!"
"Cover your ears!" the Paladin exclaimed before she pulled the trigger.
BOOOM!
"Holy shit!" the king squawked as he watched the magitek shell fly toward the ship.
KRA-KOOOW!
"Bullseye!" the paladin exclaimed triumphantly.
The flying fortress slowly turned around, angrily looking for a culprit; Beatrix's shot had punched a gaping hole in its fuselage, but the damage wasn't nearly enough to bring it down.
"Another!" the general ordered, aiming for the warship's left wing.
"Yes, ma'am!" Zidane answered, loading a second round into the cannon.
"Eat this!"
BOOOM!
KRA-KOOOW!
"Dammit!" Beatrix spat; while her shot had clearly hit the target, it hadn't slowed it down in the slightest, and she could see the ship's twin gatling guns revving up in anticipation, ready to unleash hell on them. "Here it comes!"
"Ammo loaded!" Zidane yelled.
"Die!"
BOOOM!
KER-KRACKK!
"Booyah!" the king cheered. The impact had destroyed the ship's left engine, setting the entire wing ablaze. A deep, cavernous rumble of burning wood and twisted metal filled the air; the beast was in pain, but it would not go down without a fight.
"Why is it still coming?" Zidane yelled as he loaded a fourth round into the cannon. "Bea, why is it still coming?!"
"Everyone, get outta here!" Beatrix ordered as she aimed for the ship's cockpit. "That bastard is mine!"
Before she could pull the trigger, the bomber unleashed the full power of its magitek guns on them, instantly tearing both Friede and Lanna to shreds, and ripping a good chunk of Beatrix's left shoulder off, sending her tumbling to the ground.
"Bea!" Zidane shouted.
"Nnnnnrgh!" the paladin grunted, writhing in a pool of her own blood. "Run... please..!"
Refusing to leave her to die, the king took her place and pulled the trigger. Unfortunately, the cannon's aim was off due to the ship's movement and the shot missed the cockpit, destroying one of the gatling guns instead.
"Shit..."
SPAK!
"ZIDANE!" Beatrix screamed as the king fell on his back, fatally wounded by a bullet to the chest. Desperate, she dragged herself across the blood-soaked mud toward him while the warship victoriously flew past them.
"Oh, gods... oh, gods..." she mumbled as she removed the Genome's mangled breastplate to assess his wound. "Sir, stay with me... please... stay with me..."
Bleeding profusely, Zidane craned a heavy-lidded stare at her.
"... sorry..." he croaked as he fell into a deathly sleep.
"No, no, no..!" the general muttered, pulling out an Elixir ampoule from her hip pouch and carefully pouring its contents down the gaping hole in his chest. "Your Majesty, please..! Gods... what have I done..?"
She waited for what seemed like an eternity for the concoction to take hold, but the damage was so grave that his heart was nothing but a gory paste smeared across his ribcage.
"Please..." she begged, pooling her remaining spiritual energy into a healing spell. She knew full well that his condition was probably irreversible and that she was likely to incapacitate herself or worse by trying to bring him back, but she couldn't let her king die alone in the mud. She at least owed him that.
"A tragic end, fitting for a chronic martyr such as yourself..." Kuja commented, witnessing the scene from atop a house along with the real Zidane. "if you weren't too stubborn to stay dead, that is..."
"After I fell unconscious, I had a dream... a nightmare, in fact," his brother said, tiredly rubbing his eyes.
"... What was it about?"
Zidane squirmed on his perch, clearly uncomfortable with the subject.
"I... dreamed of Terra..." he sighed. "I saw... things that I couldn't possibly remember, yet they felt like memories... so vivid that I just knew my mind wasn't making it all up."
"Well, that doesn't sound so bad," Kuja commented.
"I... heard Garland's voice inside my head. He told me things... about my birth... about my purpose..." Zidane recalled as his eyes reddened. "He said that this time around, he had made sure I would succeed where you failed... then the screaming began."
"Screaming? You dreamed of Bran Bal's destruction, perhaps?"
"Oh, I wish it had been just a dream. Watch this..." the king answered.
As soon as he closed his eyes, time resumed its flow in Zidane's mental hellscape. Tongues of fire the size of a house devoured what was left of the town while the Trenoite howitzers rained fiery death upon the Alexandrian defenders. Beatrix silently cried as she cradled the king's lifeless body, seemingly unaware of the bombs miraculously missing them.
Suddenly, the Genome's fingers twitched.
"Y-Your majesty..?" the general stammered.
Without warning, Zidane's eyelids opened, revealing a pair of glowing pupils carved into terrifying blood-red irises. The hole in his chest began sealing itself as the king rose to his feet, and with a glare he tore the sky asunder, opening a gate to the stars where the sun used to be.
"What the hell... is that..?" Beatrix mumbled, staring in horror as the gargantuan rift turned the day into night, plunging the valley into pitch-black darkness.
"No way..." Kuja uttered, sounding almost jealous.
Both the Trenoite and Alexandrian combatants stopped fighting and beheld the celestial vortex in awe, like oglops in the presence of a god.
"That day, I somehow tapped into the power that I was supposed to wield... almost became who I was supposed to be..." present-day Zidane somberly stated.
"Almost? What do you mean?" Kuja asked.
"Observe..."
KRA-KOOOM!
The air became thick with the scent of blood and the sound of screaming; a hailstorm of meteorites straight from outer space started raining all over the battlefield, turning into veritable bombs on impact.
"Your Majesty, no!" Beatrix yelled, trying to reach for the tranced Genome, but his incredibly violent aura fried her nervous system and sent her crashing into a house like a bloody rag doll.
"Ouch... guess papa Garland wasn't exaggerating," Kuja commented in an amused tone.
"And you ain't seen nothing yet," his brother declared, pointing at the sky. "Look."
The smirk on the sorcerer's lips vanished once he noticed the colossal asteroid heading straight toward the portal.
"According to Professor Tot, may he rest in peace, that thing's called Nemesis-118, and it's almost one hundred twenty-five miles wide," the Genome said. "More than enough to fuck up the entire continent in one go."
"How did you stop that in time..?"
"Actually, I didn't."
A deafening roar drew Kuja's attention away from the asteroid. "Wait, is that..?" he said, squinting at the familiar silhouette approaching the portal at breakneck speed.
"Hell yeah it is!" Zidane exclaimed.
Bahamut, the king of all dragons, fearlessly interposed himself between Gaia and the world-ending meteor. Staring death in the eye, the Eidolon opened its maw and unleashed his full power on Nemesis in the form of a massive energy beam, trying to push it away from the warp gate.
"Zidane!" Garnet yelled from the Wind Rose's deck as the royal airship entered the battlefield. Without hesitation (or a parachute), she jumped off the still flying warship in Brahne's old armor, much to Steiner's horror, and landed safely near her husband with the help of a timely Float spell.
"I'm still clueless as to how did you seduce such a woman..." Kuja commented with a smirk.
"Honestly? I have no idea," his brother conceded with a proud smile.
"Zidane! It's over! You can stop now!" Garnet screamed, slowly but surely powering through the Genome's aura thanks to her enchanted armor. "Honey, please! Stop!"
The tranced king didn't even look at her. Instead, he pointed his index finger at Bahamut, cracked a sadistic grin and fired an Ultima spell at him.
KER-BOOOOM!
The queen grabbed her head as the Eidolon howled in agony through their psychic link, but despite the blinding pain, the dragon king endured the assault and resumed his attack on the incoming asteroid.
"Zid, it's me, Garnet!" the Summoner yelled, trying her hardest to reach her husband's wrist, but his deadly aura was nearly impenetrable, so strong that it was driving her feet into the ground.
"Just... a little... further..." she grunted. "Come on... come on!"
Tink... went the tip of her armored finger as it touched Zidane's gauntlet. The Genome immediately craned a blazing glare at her and his energy field increased its violence tenfold, nearly sending her flying, but she managed to clutch his wrist before it happened and held onto him with a strength she didn't know she had.
"Zidaaaane!" she screamed as her armor's plates cracked under the immense pressure. "It's me... Dagger..! Stop..!"
Something inside the Genome definitely stirred at the sound of her voice, because his eyes lost their savage glow and his aura decreased its intensity until his wife found it bearable to be near him.
"It's okay... you're safe now..." she whispered in his ear, using the opportunity to embrace him tightly. "I love you... please, come back to me..."
As the king's Trance receded, the hole in the sky began sealing itself until the sun blessed the land again with its rays, as if nothing had happened. Successful in his mission, Bahamut evaporated like morning dew, his debt toward Alexandria finally paid.
The Genome blinked awake and stared languidly at his wife's visage as she lifted her damaged visor.
"Hi, honey..." Garnet greeted him, caressing his cheek with a gloved hand.
"... Beautiful..." Zidane croaked before passing out in her arms.
As the memory came to an end, the ruined town vanished, leaving both Genome brothers floating in a dark, infinite void.
"Alright, I believe I understand what needs to be done. Let's start by turning on the lights," Kuja said, and then he snapped his fingers. Like ink poured into water, his magic swirled around them, weaving a gorgeous recreation of Lindblum on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
"The Theater District?" Zidane said, noticing that they were standing atop Tantalus' old hideout.
"You were raised here, weren't you?" his brother answered. "Figured that a peaceful setting would help you concentrate on your training."
"Whoa, hold on, training? You sure you know what you're doing?" the blond king asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow. "Don't get me wrong, you may know how to juggle your cute little balls, but I've never seen you open a humongous portal to outer space. Maybe our powers don't even work the same way."
The sorcerer chuckled.
"I may not possess your raw magical reserves, but I'm an expert in Terran thaumaturgy," he declared, producing a delicate, translucent rose out of nothing but spiritual energy. The flower then gracefully morphed into a butterfly and flittered away into the Lindblumese horizon.
"So... you'll teach me party tricks?" Zidane joked, trying to get on his older brother's nerves.
"No, I'll teach you self-control, focus, discipline. Virtues that you obviously lack," Kuja retorted in his ever arrogant tone. "Whatever power Garland implanted inside of you is way too dangerous to leave unattended. First, we'll identify its true nature, then I'll help you master it, if only to deny our maker any posthumous satisfaction."
Zidane shrugged and folded his arms. "Alright, then... let's do this."
A few months later...
"I'm not sure I'm ready for this..." Freya sighed, standing in front of a grand, luxuriously decorated wooden gate.
"It's understandable. Take as much time as you need," Fridgeir said, nonchalantly leaning against the wall. "We could also get some rest, maybe grab a bite, and come back later when you feel like it."
"... No..." she answered, balling up her fists. "The only way out of here lies behind that door, and I'm done with this place..."
Her father smirked proudly. "In that case, go get 'em, tigress!"
The dragon knight placed both of her hands on the double door, took a deep breath and entered the Burmecian Palace's royal chamber with a mighty push.
Creeeaaaakkkkk
"I was starting to wonder if you'd ever show up," a deep, raspy voice greeted her as she stepped into the dimly lit room.
"Ulrich..." she growled.
The chancellor was sitting in a chair next to the king's bed. Puck slept peacefully, or so it seemed, under a Fang fur blanket, yet Freya knew that his bloodstream had been pumped full of dragon venom, and he would suffocate to death in a matter of minutes.
"It's over, Ulrich. I know everything about the poison," she said, a single tear rolling down her cheek, repeating word by word what she said to him on that fateful night. "In the name of the king, you're under arrest for high treason."
Ulrich snorted and then smiled at her.
"Freya, Freya... we don't have to do this," he said in a soothing tone. "You know I have nothing but the kingdom's best interests in mind."
"You're deluded... out of control," she answered. "I won't say it again. Step away from the king and surrender yourself, or I'll carry out your execution right here and now."
Unimpressed, the chancellor rose to his feet. He seemed even more imposing in the half-light, the ruthless glint in his eye underscored by his powerful, muscular frame.
"Listen to me, Freya," he said in a calm, yet menacing tone. "I find your loyalty to the crown admirable. For that, and for your exemplary service to the kingdom, I'm willing to forget this exchange ever happened and welcome you with open arms to my new, better Burmecia."
"Your dream is doomed to fail," the dragoon retorted, grabbing a halberd from the weapons rack on the wall. "Bishop doesn't give a damn about our future, she's only using you to get her revenge on Alexandria. Indulging her petty urges will only end up in tragedy for our people."
The hulking Burmecian couldn't help raising his eyebrows at her statement.
"Who are you working for..?" he asked, dropping any pretense of civility as his Dragon's Crest wreathed him in a protective blue aura. "What exactly do you know?"
Freya raised her weapon in anticipation. "I know that vengeance won't bring our loved ones back," she said.
Ulrich bared his clenched teeth at her.
"... I'll rip out your insolent tongue!" he roared, lunging at the knight like an enraged beast.
"Not this time!" the knight exclaimed, hitting the chancellor over the head with a swift, yet devastating downwards hew.
TWHACK!
"Unf..!" the chancellor uttered, surprised to see his own blood on the floor; he hadn't expected someone as lithe as her to punch through his spirit armor without magical enhancements. "By the gods... you truly are the finest warrior this land has ever produced..."
"No..." she calmly answered, adopting an aggressive stance. "I'm just not afraid of you anymore."
Ulrich smiled confidently and stood straight, towering above his opponent. Without breaking eye contact, he offered the knight a subtle, courteous bow before launching himself at blinding speed toward her in an attempt to negate her reach advantage.
"Too slow!" Freya shouted, somersaulting over his head as he missed his right hook and using the spinning motion to bury her halberd between his shoulder blades, sending him crashing into the weapons rack.
CLANG!
"Keh... heheheh..." Ulrich chuckled, picking up a poleaxe as he rose to his feet. "Guess it's time to get serious..."
With unexpected gracefulness, the chancellor unleashed a flurry of flowing, circular hews, briefly putting Freya on the defensive due to his immense strength.
"Come on, show me what you've got!" he exclaimed. As his ego started getting the best of him, his initially precise blows became increasingly sloppy, and when he launched a particularly careless diagonal slash, the far more experienced dragoon saw her chance to shut him down.
"Beware what you wish for!" the knight retorted, switching to a one-handed grip and deflecting his attack with a brutal upwards strike. Using her weapon's momentum, she spun the halberd over her head and launched a killer diagonal cut, aiming for his neck, but Ulrich caught her polearm in his fist and snapped it in half like a twig.
"My apologies," he said, throwing the broken halberd away. "I know exploiting our difference in magical power is most dishonorable, but I can't afford to die. Not before my work is complete."
Using the full power of his Crest, the chancellor closed the gap between them in the blink of an eye.
"Goodbye, Crescent..." he snarled, swinging his poleaxe at her neck, too fast for her to react beyond instinctively closing her eyes.
"We both know how this ends..." a familiar voice filled the room, seemingly coming from everywhere at once. "But we could change that, if you'd just let me do my job..."
Freya opened her eyes; time had slowed down to a crawl around her, and Ulrich was frozen in place with a murderous grin plastered on his face.
"... I wasn't expecting to meet you again. Not here at least," she answered, having recognized the Beast's chilling presence despite not being able to see it. "If you're here to tell me that I can't get anything done without your help, you're wasting your time."
"I don't need to. You just admitted it without my input," the entity sneered.
"Exactly."
Even if she couldn't see it, the knight felt that the Beast had just done a double take.
"... You know? At first I thought you were some kind of evil, mind-hijacking demon... actually, I spent an embarrassing amount of time believing that," she pressed on, smirking at her own choice of words. "But now I've come to understand what you truly are."
"... Enlighten me."
"You're a part of me... my fighting spirit, my will to survive, and even if you can be a nasty piece of work at times, I'd like to apologize for treating you... us... like dirt. I don't want to hate myself anymore."
The presence remained silent for a moment, unused to this kind of acceptance.
"... What exactly do you propose?"
"Let's work together, like in the old days," the dragoon answered. "United we can beat this creep, save our homeland and reclaim our life."
"... Can't deny I would enjoy kicking his teeth in..."
"Heheh... that's the spirit!" the knight concurred. "Look, I can't promise things will work out smoothly from the get-go, but y'know? I have a good feeling about this."
The Beast pondered her plan one more time before making its choice.
"... Hmph... don't screw this up," it said as it lent its might to the dragoon. "I'll be watching..."
"You won't be disappointed," Freya answered as time began to flow.
CRACK!
"Huh..?! But when..?!" Ulrich blurted out, looking at his weapon in utter disbelief; the knight had returned the favor by chopping his poleaxe in half with the edge of her hand. Her skin, claws and teeth had turned into white-hot steel, and a shimmering haze wreathed her, distorting the light passing through it like a powerful lens.
"You may start running now..." she growled.
BLAM!
"Oof..!" the chancellor uttered as Freya's deadly left hook threw him off-balance, leaving a large gash on his cheek. Enraged, he tackled the dragoon, lifted her off her feet and slammed her into a wall like a charging bull.
"Is that all you've got?!" she barked, surprising him with a headbutt followed by a brutal uppercut that sent him flying through the roof. With a powerful jump, she chased him into the skies, cleaving a path through the rain like a shooting star.
"Enough!" Ulrich roared, summoning all the dragon souls trapped into his Crest at once. A hundred howling wraiths emerged from his flesh and homed in on the knight, intent on tearing her apart limb from limb.
With a swift move, Freya pulled the Crescent pendant out of her pouch and loaded it with every single drop of energy left in her body.
"THIS ENDS NOW!" she roared as she unleashed the mightiest Cherry Blossom spell ever seen, cutting a blazing swathe through the phantom swarm like a comet in the solar wind.
"Amazing..." Ulrich muttered, watching his last line of defense crumble and burn to ash before his very eyes. "You are finally ready..."
A blinding explosion set the skies ablaze.
...
...
...
"Oh shit, I think she's waking up!"
"Huh..? Zidane..?"
"Freya, my dear, can you hear me?"
"Dad..?"
"That's right! Welcome back, Pumpkin!"
Laboriously, the knight opened her eyes and found herself in a humble, yet cozy wooden house. Massive branches, wide as tree trunks, acted as the structure's support beams, and the morning sun seeped into the room through a large window next to her bed.
"Wakey wakey, lazy bum," Zidane greeted her with a bright grin plastered on his face.
"Ohhh, the nerve of you..!" she yawned as she stretched out, feeling unusually refreshed. "Where are we now? Are we still in the fortress?"
"Errr... yes and no... but mostly yes," Fridgeir answered, pointing at the window. "Why don't you see it for yourself?"
Not knowing what to expect anymore, Freya sat up and peeked outside. "Holy mother of..." she exclaimed, unable to believe her eyes. "Are we where I think we are?"
"Indeed!" her father proudly declared. "Welcome back to Cleyra!"