Chapter 30

Wilburn

Leo located an enraged Ultimecia atop the western plateaus, screaming with a primal fury that he had never seen from her future self. She was almost naked, and most of her silver hair was gone. What little remained of her scarlet gown was horribly melted to her smouldered skin. When the Empress sighted Tiamat flying toward her, she seemed to regain herself. She fashioned herself a new gown, the horns of hair reappearing. Yet she could not do nothing for her own charred skin; she would need a battle mage for that. Though she seemed unaffected by any pain.

'I shall have Rinoa's head and powers both for that!' Ultimecia vowed. 'Leviathan is lost!'

'Regrettable,' Leo responded. 'Though I am glad to see that you are unhurt, Your Grace. I suspect that Leviathan did not have much power remaining. The fleet remains intact and is in Ramius' capable hands.'

'Leo, I had an epiphany whilst riding that accursed meteor!' Akkursed. Leo noted that she was speaking more like her future self, with a bastardisation of her crisp Esthari diction that would not have ordinarily happened for several generations. Ultimecia continued. 'Ifrit Almasy will no doubt be sheltering at Wilburn. There will be none other than the National Guard, and perhaps a scant few SeeDs defending him!'

Leo held her determined gaze.

'You will go to Wilburn, and you will kill the boy.'

Leo said nothing.

'Once Ifrit is dead, rejoin the battle at Galbadia City. We will hunt down Seifer and Gerra together.'

Leo nodded reluctantly and said, 'As you wish, Ultimecia.'

As Esthar sounded the retreat, Rhodry had bolted to the Galbadian camp with Shiva's speed, removing the mounted machine gun and the ammunition crates from a high-mobility vehicle for increased speed. Then he had gently lain Selphie on the back seat as she had been brought to him, placing a bullet-proof veil over her as though tucking a child into bed.

There had been no traffic on the outskirts of Galbadia City, and he had reached the interstate with Wilburn in fifteen minutes. The six-lane road followed the scenic line of the plateaus, running parallel to rail tracks. It was virtually empty. If Esthar had blockaded the road before the battle, it had been called off. Rhodry tore down the road unimpeded and reached Wilburn within a few hours.

The canyon citadel had been the farthest reach of the Holy Dollet Empire. Wilburn had been repurposed by Galbadia for the modern era, but it still retained many of its features of old. The giant wall surrounding the city had been restored in many places, a welcome sight for marvelling tourists, who would happily spend a day leisurely walking its ten-mile circumference, with many breakoff paths up into the surrounding plateau. It was an alluring wonder when viewed from above, with a daytime sky ordinarily full of hot-air balloons and private helicopters, with firework displays on special nights. Wilburn had once brought in as much tourist income as the capital, but this had steadily reduced as Esthar had expanded westward. Although many young couples still enjoyed scenic sabbaticals in the canyon citadel, and many politicans and entrepreneurs from Galbadia City owned second homes here.

The great wall now served its original purpose of defence, and there was a checkpoint covering all six lanes of the single road into the city. Rhodry obeyed a National Guardswoman with a megaphone, gently braking the vehicle a dozen yards before it. He placed both hands within view on the steering wheel, Icefall reverted to an ordinary longsword on the passenger seat. The guardswoman placed the megaphone down and approached with a dozen orange-clad soldiers.

'Identify yourself!' she demanded.

'Rhodry Blaen, of SeeD,' Rhodry carefully inclined his head toward Selphie, who had not stirred throughout the whole journey. 'And Sorceress Selphie, freed from Sorceress Reina's mind control. I have been instructed to bring her to Lady Ellone.'

The Galbadians relaxed, many squinting curiously at Selphie in the dim light.

'We were told to expect you, sir!' the guardswoman said. 'The Lady Ellone is staying with Ambassador Loire in the old town! We will give you the address!'

The guardswoman ordered a male subordinate to get a map, which had already been marked with the location of Laguna's residence. The teenage guardsman tentatively handed it through the open window to him, and Rhodry placed it next to his sword, his eyes on the solders.

'Thank you.'

There was a tense silence.

'The Abadon of Adaryn, our troops said the Esthari were calling you,' the guardswoman said. 'It was a brave thing what you did, sir, confronting the Sorceress alone. But never forget, she killed thousands of our people before you got to her. She might be free, but many in Galbadia will not be so forgiving.'

Rhodry did not respond. He recalled that many people had said the same thing about Sorceress Edea, following the Battle of the Gardens.

He proceeded to the old town once the National Guard let him through the blockade, the tarmac giving way to cobbled streets. There was no formal curfew, but most commercial places were closed. The National Guard patrolled almost every street, supplemented by police officers. They resembled the city watch of old with their lances and polearms, giving Rhodry accusing glances as he passed.

Rhodry parked in front of a two-story house in a high-rent district of the citadel, topped with a roof terrace giving superb views of the surrounding wall and mesas. He knew these houses had spa facilities out back. Of course, a government ambassador – and Esthar's former president – would be able to afford such a lavish second home. The occupiers knew that Rhodry was coming, and he would be in camera range. The front door flew open. A tall man in a White SeeD uniform lacking the beret jogged to the vehicle. It was Raiden, Raine's younger brother. He was almost his father's height, but leaner. His dark hair was tied back into a straight ponytail.

'Rhodry?' he asked.

'Good evening, Raiden.'

The White SeeD helped him retrieve the motionless Selphie, and Rhodry carried her in his arms to the open door. He moved through the hall, following Raiden into the nearest reception room, where two children were watching television. The girl was Edea, the youngest of Ellone and Raijin's children, with flowers in the ringlets of her dark hair. At her side was a boy of a similar age, with black hair and a narrow face. Ifrit took more after Fujin than Seifer, but when he stood, he was tall for his years, with the body shape that suggested he would grow into a broad warrior.

Rhodry laid Selphie gently on an empty two-seater couch as the newly widowed Ellone appeared in the doorway. News must have reached Ellone of Raijin's death; her eyes were red and bloodshot. With her appeared the now elderly Laguna, with a First Sorceress War-era sub-machine gun strapped over his back. Despite the bravado, the president-in-exile was now lame, leaning on a carved cane in his left hand. His grey hair was unkempt, partially swept back with some bangs curtaining his face. Ellone took one look at Selphie and turned to the children.

'Upstairs, now!' she said forcefully.

When they protested, Raiden picked up the remote and switched off the TV.

'Go on!' he said, ushering them from the room.

'Tell them she's sorry!' Laguna urged Raiden.

Laguna turned to him. 'So, Selphie's definitely free from Reina's control?' he asked nervously.

'Yes!' Rhodry answered. 'I removed that cursed crown myself, and Quistis did everything that she could for her! But she's been like this ever since!'

'Selphie's a fighter!' Laguna stated boldly. 'She won't give up while Reina still draws breath! Not after Irvine!'

'I know,' Rhodry agreed.

Laguna grinned. 'Selphie made me famous, this side of the ocean! Sir Laguna, she called me, collecting every issue of Timber Maniacs that I wrote for! She laid the foundation for my biography!'

They ignored him, saying nothing more as Ellone dabbed sweat from the Sorceress' brow. Selphie appeared to be in a deep sleep, her breathing slow and laboured.

Rhodry knew Ellone's history. Although not a SeeD, Ellone had spent more than ten years on the White SeeD Ship. Under the tutelage of Edea, she had become one of their most proficient white magic users. He had first met Ellone in the library at Balamb Garden, shortly after his transfer, and she had spent time with him and Anwen when Selphie left for her first mission. Though Ellone had departed Garden soon after, and Rhodry had not seen her again for many years, until Trabia Garden's destruction forced his move back west.

'Hyne forbid it,' Rhodry said, 'but if she dies, you may be the only one suitable to take her powers, Elle!'

Ellone stiffened. 'I can only pray that it doesn't come to that. The possibility was raised during the Divide. Squall and others thought I'd been extremely responsible with my power, despite once trying to use it for personal gain. But Selphie is a warrior Sorceress, like Quistis. I would be a poor replacement.' She traced her fingers along her palms, and Rhodry could see that they were callused. 'Ten years was a long time to spend aboard a military vessel. And Raijin would never let me stop training in the years since, as part of his self-imposed penance for playing a part in my abduction. Yet aside from monster encounters, I've only fought in two real battles.'

Rhodry knew which battles Ellone referred to. The sea skirmish in Centra, where she had evaded Galbadian marines and gave herself up to the Esthari. And when she had been forcibly taken from the Lunar escape pod, after the Cry.

Ellone looked back at Selphie. 'Though if it would allow Selph to die in peace and prevent Reina from becoming more powerful, I'll accept her power.'

Raiden entered the room, closing the door behind him. Ellone rose and turned to Rhodry.

'Did you see Raijin die, Rhodry?' she asked him.

'No, I didn't. He was killed by either Vlahos or Akechi,' he paused. 'Or Tyris.'

Ellone's eyes widened. Raiden looked between them.

'Rhodry, might I use you to witness this?' Ellone asked.

Rhodry had heard much about Ellone's unique ability, though had never sought to witness it first-hand.

'Of course, you can,' he replied.

'Lay on the other sofa,' she said.

He did so, realising how weary he was seconds before Ellone's enforced sleep took him.

Leo had almost reached the city from the north. While jetting through the sky astride Tiamat, he pondered the coming deed that had been demanded of him. Since the Empress had been struck by that shooting star, it was the first time Leo had been apart from her for any length of time, since first meeting her in Trabia.

The pause gave him some time for reflection. If he slew the young Ifrit, it would be the most immoral act he had ever committed. Was killing the boy truly necessary? Surely just eliminating Gerra in this era would suffice. He had sworn a vow to serve as Ultimecia's Knight. Except this duty was to remain by her side, to be the anchor that stopped her powers from consuming her, and to defend her from persecution. This included confronting her enemies, but not slaughtering innocent children. He recalled the Empress had once commanded Gerra and Vargas to execute two children that had been among a group of captured White SeeDs. While Vargas would not have thought twice, Leo knew that Gerra had never forgiven himself for that act, and it had likely sowed the seeds of his betrayal.

With little else to pass the time, Leo had the opportunity to survey the surrounding landscape before the setting sun plunged the mesa into darkness. Although Centra had seen improved climates in his era, most of the world had become harsh and uninhabitable. It was chiefly populated by isolated nomads and hunter gatherers that had regressed into an iron age existence, the old world but a distant memory. Leo had been born into that bleak world, the heir to a forgotten line of monarchs. Through sheer, hard determination he had risen to be High Commander of the imperial forces. The Obsidian Harbinger, they had called him.

Though after witnessing southern Trabia, the tropical nation of Balamb and parts of the western continent, Leo began to wonder how and why the world had changed so much in the space of a few hundred years. The Mother of all Lunar Cries had changed the landscape of old Centra. Yet that had been an exceptional, cataclysmic phenomenon that would not be repeated for millennia. The three Cries that followed in the centuries before his birth were small by comparison. Was the Empress responsible for that world of ruin? Would Gerra stopping her rise prevent this change? Was it this that Gerra and Odine had sought to accomplish all along? Leo tried to bury his misgivings in the back of his mind. It was not his place to question how or why, and he had a mission to carry out.

The journey took a couple of hours. He glanced at the silent Tiamat more than once, pitying the GF as he had Bahamut in the future. When Leo reached Wilburn, he flew circles above the great wall of the citadel, willing Tiamat to roar and send jets of flame high into the air. Wanting to prevent unnecessary casualties, Leo had the draconic GF fire a flare at an unoccupied stretch of the wall, blowing an opening in it wider than the road entrance to the city. Below him, he saw uniformed officers running through the streets. Some uselessly fired small arms at him from the wall, the tracer thin lines in the sky.

With an intensified voice, Leo called out, 'I have come for Ifrit Almasy! Bring him to me, lest Tiamat reduce the city to rubble!'

His demand was answered by a pale blue light; a straight ray of raw energy directed at him from a rooftop of a two-story building. Leo knew it was the colour of Shiva; the distant form of her summoner glowing with that light. Leo willed Tiamat to fly towards it. As he got close, he could see it was a man almost of his own height, slenderly built, holding the legendary Icefall blade.

Rhodry was motionless as Tiamat was recalled by his summoner. The man was slightly taller than him and much broader, with a blond mohican and a darker goatee. He wore midnight black armour with a crimson cape draping from the shoulders, and he held a long, twin-bladed gunblade forged from obsidian.

'Rhodry Blaen,' the man acknowledged. 'The Abadon of Adaryn.'

'They were calling me that on upon the plains,' Rhodry replied. 'Who are you? A Praetorian?'

'No,' the man answered. 'I am Leonidas Christophe, Knight to Sorceress Ultimecia.'

So, it is true, Rhodry realised. 'Reina's knight? With respect, I've never heard of you before,' he responded carefully.

'That is because I do not belong here,' Christophe responded. 'I hail from the future. Though by the same account, you do not belong here, either. You are alive on borrowed time, Abadon. You were destined to die defending Adaryn, cowardly cut down from afar after besting Colonel Vlahos. Yet it matters not. I can grant you the noble death you deserve.'

Rhodry raised Icefall. 'What do you want with the boy?' he demanded.

The Knight hesitated. 'There are forces at work seeking to prevent Ultimecia's ascension, other than SeeD and the Sorceresses opposed to her.'

'Gerra,' Rhodry said simply.

'Yes. He was Ultimecia's Knight before he betrayed her. He is also Ifrit's descendant, and the Empress has demanded the boy's death. I do not concur with her decree, and will take no pleasure in such an atrocity, but he will die.'

'That is not going to happen!'

Rhodry approached the bigger man. The steps of their precisely planted feet and the ring from the meeting of their blades were the only sounds that passed between them as they began to duel, both of their faces set. Christophe was undoubtedly the stronger of the two. Though with his lanky, springy frame, Rhodry moved with a litheness and possessed a whipcord strength in his lean limbs. He pivoted from side to side, swinging his crystalline sword with exceptional accuracy, still managing to quickly cut and thrust in between parrying Christophe's herculean strokes.

During a very brief respite, Christophe sighted Raiden at the terrace entrance. The Knight backed up and blanketed the entrance with Tiamat's midnight blue fire, then looked back at Rhodry. Blades meeting again, they probed each other, striking no more than half a dozen times before answering a counterattack from the other. Neither were distracted by the shouts from Raiden. Or those of the National Guard below, dozens of whom had gathered in the street after following Tiamat's flight.

After another minute, the flames were snuffed out as though someone had thrown water upon them. They both risked a glance to the opening and saw Selphie standing in the doorway with conviction in her eyes. The Sorceress stood barehanded, as Strangevision had been left behind, but there were floating magnolia embers above both flexed palms. Instantly, Christophe made a motion with his thumb and his gunblade split into two. Selphie walked measuredly out onto the rooftop, followed by Raiden.

'Sorceress Selphie,' Christophe said calmly, Tiamat reappearing. 'My condolences for the passing of your Knight. Like Rhodry, he should have died gloriously on the field of battle. Though such was Empress' will.'

Tiamat lowered his head, and in a fluid motion Christophe was back on its back.

'Ultimecia's reign ends here, in the present!' Selphie vowed, as Rhodry joined her side. 'Now we know how she came into being, we'll never allow her to remain alive! Not after the chaos both versions of her have already caused!'

'Her time is nigh, Christophe,' Rhodry concurred. 'You know this to be true. Galbadia lost the Battle on the Great Plains in your timeline.'

'Galbadia might still fall, yet,' the Knight replied. 'You are worthy of your moniker, Abadon. You are the best I've ever fought, save for the Red Reaver. We will meet again.'

Tiamat launched itself away, high above the city within a few seconds. When Rhodry turned to Selphie, he could see that despite the audacity in the face of Leo, she was still very weak. Her skin was pallid, and she was shaking. Selphie remained standing until Tiamat disappeared into the night, then sagged to her knees. Rhodry steadied her with his hands, Raiden also crouching by them.

'Thanks for the save, Selph,' Rhodry said. 'It's okay, Ifrit's safe now.'

'I can't just sit on the damned sidelines!' Selphie said exasperatedly. 'Squall and the others need me!'

'You need to recover your strength!' Rhodry urged her. 'You're lucky to be alive! Shiva and I will defend you and Ifrit with our lives!'

Laguna had hobbled onto the rooftop, his sub-machine gun in his free hand. Ellone must have kept the children in their rooms, as there was no sign of her. They could hear the National Guard at their front door, and the doorbell was now ringing repeatedly in between shouts through a megaphone.

'I got here just in time, guys!' Laguna said. 'Now, where is that dragon?'

'That dragon is a Guardian Force, Grandpa!' Raiden said. 'One of the most powerful, Tiamat!'

Laguna gulped. 'Woah, really? Well, I guess Rhodry had us covered!'

(A/N: Now 30 chapters in, or 31 including the prologue. I completed two drafts of this before I started uploading any of it, as I wanted to avoid being one of those users that never finishes their fics. I hadn't attempted to write anything for years, and what started out as a time killer during the UK's Covid lockdowns quickly became an obsession. It's ultimately the number of visits to the more the recent chapters that gives me the motivation to keep posting, so I would like to offer my modest number of followers and all returning readers my heartfelt appreciation.)