Chapter 40

The Sorceress Slayer

Leo stared at the ceiling of the grand bedchamber, as the magic putting him at rest wore away. He could no longer sleep without it. To his left, Ultimecia stirred. He slowly cast his eyes to her shapely form, the wine-red sheet draping down her hip, most of her body exposed. Feeling eternally soiled as he stirred underneath the sheets once more, he jammed his eyes closed with a wrench of will and rose. He moved slowly to avoid disturbing her, sliding to the side of the bed.

Before him, the Heart of the Empire was in full view from the gigantic windows, dawn's sunlight filtered through to illuminate the whole bedchamber. They had returned to Esthar City the previous night. Despite their forces being in retreat, the death of Sorceress Quistis had swiftly been paraded on state news in all occupied territories, in attempt to divert attention from the aborted invasion. The Galbadians were broadcasting their memorial service today. With the time difference, it would be starting in Esthar's afternoon, and Ultimecia wished to see it. Two of the fallen had died by Leo's hand, and even had they not, he had profound respect for all of them. He would be watching, too.

'Are you still doubting yourself, my Knight?' Ultimecia whispered.

The Sorceress' Knight knew he could hide nothing from her. Or Sorceress Slayer, as many within Esthar's armed forces had taken to calling him.

'I just need some time for reflection,' Leo replied, meeting those glowing yellow eyes. 'You know the truth. I love you, Ultimecia; I always have. I've always considered myself a man of honour, but as for what I did to the Blue Mage,' he trailed off, looking back to the unusually shaped skyscrapers before him. 'There can be no repent for such an act, but it was borne of my love for you.'

Leo had felt so vile following the battle that he had refused to speak to anyone other than Ultimecia. He had not acknowledged the nods or cheers of appreciation from anyone. After boarding a Valkyr with the Empress, the remaining Praetorians and General Zebalga, he had cast off Tiamat's crystal in self-loathing. He neither knew nor cared that it had been greedily picked up by Zebalga.

He stood before the Empress naked, feeling more stripped away from who he had been than ever before. The dawn had ended an empty night of passion, doing little to take his mind off the way he had brutally murdered Sorceress Quistis. The Blue Mage had deserved a noble death befitting the warrior Sorceress she had been. If Ultimecia commanded him to kill Ifrit Almasy again, he feared that he would lose what little shred of soul remained to him.

'You have single-handedly won my war for me, Leo,' she said. 'You are more worthy of being my Knight than Gerra or anyone else ever was. Or ever will be. You are perhaps the only man worthy of receiving my love, from any era.'

The love of Ultimecia. That was something Leo had always secretly desired but never expected to receive. Had he remained in his own timeline, he would still be serving as the head of an imperial force she had long lost interest in, merely her loyal subject.

And loyal husband to Alanis.

'I trust I have pleased you, Ultimecia.' Leo finally answered, walking close to the window. It was one-way, but he would not have cared if it was not, stripped to his very core.

'You will need a Guardian Force, Leo. We still have to eliminate the remaining Children of Fate. You cannot continue to serve as my Knight without one.'

Leo nodded. 'Of course. I just desire to be alone for a short while. Might I take my leave of your chamber, now?'

'Yes,' she agreed. 'But be sure to return to me as you were before, Leo. I cannot afford doubt in your blades when we stand before the Lionheart, Rinoa and Selphie. The boy has to die, too.'

Leo went rigid. 'Your Grace, can you not command General Zebalga to commit the deed? I am a warrior, not a butcher. The General would not think twice about killing the boy.'

Ultimecia sighed heavily. 'Most Zebalgans take pleasure in scarring their victims for life, both mentally and physically. We both know Memnon would more likely rape and torture the boy, leaving him ravaged, but not dead. We have seen the result of this with Tyris, who waited in the wings for a dozen years for vengeance. Now, the Stormbringer has grown powerful enough to be a threat to us. I will not take the chance,' she finished firmly. 'It must be you, Leo, and you cannot fail me again.'

Leo's eyes shut, thinking that nothing would make him feel better than killing the barbarous Zebalgan himself.

'As you wish, Ultimecia.'

Yet they both knew they would never be able to locate the boy, now.

There was one western news agency permitted in the Empire. That agency had broadcast the memorial service in Esthar and all occupied territory. Ultimecia had been watching with Leo on a huge plasma screen, inside one of the recreational rooms of the repurposed government building. None of her eight remaining Praetorians were present, having all being granted annual leave after the retreat.

They had remained in near silence until her true name had been mentioned. President Martine had gone off on a spiel about how Ultimecia had possessed Edea during the Second Sorceress War, forcing the late Sorceress to do her bidding.

But that was not true. After her mother's imprisonment, a young Reina had been spirited away by her father, Odysseus. She had still been in hiding during the last war, away from Esthar's mainland, and did not return until a year after the Cry, with her considerable force of tribespeople and subjugated GFs. Although she had been a grown woman in full mastery of her powers by then, she had played no part in the briefest of Sorceress Wars. Furthermore, the slave diadems had not been invented by then.

Again, Ultimecia thought about what the Lionheart had told her during the sea battle. That the Children of Fate had travelled to the future and defeated her. But how? And more importantly, why? What purpose would that have served, when it would have had no effect on the current war? From Leo's mind, Ultimecia had learned much of the future, near and far. Except the arrival of the Children of Fate in the future had not happened by the time Leo came to the past.

After the westerners had finished their speeches and the bodies had been interred, she told Leo to switch off the television.

'Leo,' she began, 'you said that you had words with the Lionheart at Galbadia City. Why do they think that I was controlling Edea during the Second Sorceress War?'

Leo looked ill at ease, as he had since the return from Galbadia. Ultimecia feared his moral quandaries; feared that she was losing him. That could not happen, not after she had developed feelings for him in turn. Not after she had given him her heart, body, and soul. Their nights of passion had become empty, and she did not need a mind contact to know her Knight was just going through the motions.

'He claimed that you sent your consciousness to the past, to possess Edea. Presumably, you did so with the Junction Machine Ellone, which Odine currently labours on in this time. Though this must have been after my own era, as I know nothing of this. As far as I was aware, Your Grace, you only used the JME to observe the past. To learn more of it.'

'Ellone,' Ultimecia said quietly.

Ellone, who had been taken from Winhill as a terrified young girl, torn from her foster mother's arms. This was two years after her real parents had been gunned down in cold blood in the quaint town's market square. The same night a Galbadian officer called Edea Almasy revealed herself as the Successor of Jadis, taking Adel by storm from Alexander's ramparts. The girl had been experimented on in O-Lab as much for Odine's own fascination than Adel's interest. Reina had been permitted to befriend the western girl, and the two had become close, as they were inherently different from other children. But they had been separated by Adel's downfall.

For nearly forty years, Odine had worked on a machine that replicated Ellone's brainwaves, the prototype of the JME. This was so one might use it to enter the mind of another in the past. Although sometime before a young Reina took power in Esthar, the Cowardly Lion had instructed Odine to abandon his development of the JME, with all the research destroyed. Now Ultimecia thought she understood why. Once in power, she had ordered the development restarted from scratch, as she could use such a device to learn much about the past. Not least to witness her mother's storied life, along with that of all other ancient and prehistoric Sorceresses. She could even behold the Fall of Hyne.

Yet, after another twenty years, the JME was still not complete. Ultimecia knew Odine was likely stalling. He had claimed before that he did not think he could complete the machine without the reacquisition of Ellone. Though Ultimecia knew what her childhood friend had gone through, so had opted not to use her. She had been too preoccupied with her war, in any case.

'Ellone was the only friend I ever had,' Ultimecia said aloud, then asked, 'So, the JME is fully functioning in your time?'

'Yes, Your Grace,' Leo said. 'It resides in your castle, except Gerra claims he destroyed it.'

'And Odine's descendant was developing a functioning time machine, unbeknownst to me? Not only that, he managed it in a fraction of the time it took to build the JME?' Ultimecia remarked.

A flash of the old Leo returned with a fierce countenance. 'If I had got wind of it sooner, Your Grace,' he said, 'I would have stopped it. As it was, I acquired Gerra in the nick of time.'

Ultimecia reclined her head, looking at the ceiling. 'Why was I betrayed, Leo?'

Leo hesitated, and she looked back at him with a snap of her head.

'I… don't know, Your Grace.'

Ultimecia's yellow tinged eyes bore into his. 'You can hide nothing from me, Knight!' she snapped.

Leo looked more torn than intimidated but sighed in defeat.

'The Lionheart said you became warped and nihilistic in the future. You used the JME to possess Edea and other Sorceresses – including your mother – to compress time, to create a world in which only you could survive. You were partially successful in such a feat, for I witnessed the effects myself. The Lionheart claims he and his comrades rode your own spell to the future and stopped you.'

Ultimecia looked away, into the middle distance as she considered his words. Her eyes closed, and she reclined her head again. It was some time before she spoke.

'Sorceress Edea and her Children of Fate met with Odine and the Cowardly Lion twenty years ago,' she said. 'Odine must have learned about my future deeds from Edea, which explains why Loire wanted him to destroy his research.'

Her voice softened as she met her Knight's eyes again.

'Leo, I only sought to follow in my mother's and grandsire's footsteps. To bring our world under a single banner in a new age of peace and prosperity, devoid of war and suffering. The Age of Ultimecia. That, and to destroy SeeD for the murder of my mother, which gave me a deep hatred of them. SeeD murdered Adel when she was still in cryogen, like impaling a babe while helpless in its mother's womb. They interfere in world affairs and harbour unthinkable power with the Guardian Forces. That Quistis and Selphie were also SeeDs, and Rinoa was in love with the Lionheart, made them even more dangerous. I have no desire to end all existence.'

Leo seemed to consider his answer.

'I was born two centuries after your conquest,' he began, 'into a harsh realm. Forgive me for speaking plainly, Your Grace, but it was apparent that you had long grown disinterested with your domain. Gerra was effectively your regent. You spent long periods of time shut away in your castle, surrounding yourself with demons you had conquered over the decades, such as Catoblepas and Omega. Very few of your subjects lived in your castle, save for Gerra and the Praetorians. It had begun falling into disrepair.'

'But how could I ever take for granted something I've been working towards for my entire life?' Ultimecia wondered.

Leo had no answer. She would confront Odine.

Ultimecia and Leo reached O-Lab. There were two cyborgs posted at the entrance, who dutifully saluted her as they approached.

'Good afternoon, Your Grace!' they said in unison.

With the mood she was in, Ultimecia would have blown them to pieces had their IFF failed. The large, automatic doors parted, and they proceeded down a wide corridor, approaching the circular lift that levitated to the upper levels. Refusing to ride it, Ultimecia flew into the opening above, leaving Leo behind. Alarms began to sound, the sensors within the walls and lift shaft mistaking her winged form for an escaped lab specimen. The blasts doors to Odine's terminal centre at the top were sealed shut as a result.

Though once the Empress was in view of the camera outside, the alarms were overridden, and the door opened before her. Odine and several of his aides were arrayed around the terminals, fearfully looking at her as she measuredly walked into the centre. It was the first time they had seen her true form in the flesh.

The famous scientist was now elderly, his wispy hair white and his small face deeply lined. He had retained his ludicrous dress sense over the decades. Ultimecia steely spoke his name, and Odine looked terrified.

And so he should be, for she was furious. Ultimecia had gone through the old security archives. She had played back the entire meeting between the Children of Fate, the Cowardly Lion, the presidential aides Seagill and Zabac, and Odine. She had also viewed meetings between Odine and Edea from the days before that. This man had orchestrated her future self's destruction by a group of melodramatic teenagers, regardless of the circumstances, and had been allowed to live in relative luxury the entire time she had ruled Esthar. Not mentioning his descendant had also betrayed her.

Now, Ultimecia knew the entire story. She had possessed Edea to capture Ellone, as her future self could not travel further back than when the JME's prototype had first been switched on, which was shortly before the Second Sorceress War. She had needed Ellone's power to possess her mother in ancient Centra, two thousand years earlier. Ultimecia assumed that two Sorceresses at two distant waypoints in time was enough to cause Time Compression. The co-conspirators had allowed her to perform her spell, trusting that the Children of Fate's bonds, in addition to their resolve to defeat her, would be potent enough for them to ride the phenomenon and reach her in the future. In that bold gambit, they were successful.

Yet Ultimecia did not understand what had driven her future self to such a goal.

Opening her talon towards Odine, she willed him to experience more pain than he had ever experienced before. In an instant, he was writhing on the floor in agony, screaming. The aides were backing against their terminals, frozen with terror. Ultimecia thought of Ellone as a child, terrified and crying within the observation room below. She thought of Odine secretly liaising with Edea during the First Sorceress War, plotting her mother's downfall. To think that the mongrel did not even care about his family in Galbadia, so long as he could continue his research here!

She heard Leo enter the room behind her.

'Your Grace!' he warned. 'He could die!'

Odine would not die, not yet. She knew the maximum amount of pain she could cause before endangering his life. Though he would likely be crippled, which would be befitting.

Abating the spell, she said, 'You have been highly dishonest with me, Odine! You knew that I was Ultimecia from the beginning, didn't you? I know about Time Compression. I know about the plot you and Edea hatched to defeat my future self!'

'P-please, Empress!' Odine gasped. 'Odine zuzpected… but did not know… until you called yourself… Ultimezia!'

His accent had always grated her. Most people could not place it, as his people came from the archipelago east of the Grandidi, a very isolated but advanced community. Equally irritating was his insistence on referring to himself in third person. His aide and compatriot, Gunther, dared a step forward, holding out his hands in a peace gesture. Thankfully, he spoke with the crisp Esthari diction.

'If I may, Your Grace,' Gunther said. 'Sorceress Edea assumed that you were birthed long after this time. I met with her when she first returned to Esthar and was present at the discussions. Edea said that your future self never revealed your origins to her, and she told the Cowardly Lion as much.'

Ultimecia knew this was possible. Adel had not trusted Odine enough to make him aware of a young Reina's existence. If she had, then surely the easier option for Squall's party would have been to locate and kill Reina twenty years ago. It raised the question of why Gerra had not attempted to do that himself. Although Reina had been well concealed, not emerging until the opportune moment.

She walked to the twitching Odine and knelt before him.

'Odine, your stalling on the Junction Machine Ellone is to come to an end! You were able to develop para-magic with Edea under my mother's nose and manipulate the Crystal Pillar in a matter of years! It should not have taken you nearly forty years to complete your little toy! I have no desire to possess past Descendants of Hyne! I merely want a greater understanding of our history. If the JME is not functioning within twelve months, you shall be executed! As will your family, for I will have crushed SeeD and conquered Galbadia by then! Is that understood?'

'Ja… Your Grace,' he whispered.