Start Date: April 28, 2024
Windwillow
Final Fantasy IX: The Reason and Right to Exist
Chapter Nine: The Iifa Tree's Secret
Scene One
Having defeated the Hill Gigas, the party continued on through the Conde Petie Mountain Path, crossing over another massive root and moving forward into a large open plain. At the end of the grasslands was a large structure, seemingly a mountain of some sort, with multiple flat layers and the ruins of a lost civilization. The settlement had been utterly decimated, with only a few buildings left standing... and the ones that remained were in horrible shape, apparently scorched by an unknown heat source that had nearly razed the entire place to the ground.
When she entered the settlement Eiko's eyes darted back and forth across the ruins, and with a single whistle a whole army of moogles emerged from the stone and rubble. Eiko silently counted them all, but when she realized there was a discrepancy her eyes went wide. "Mog!" she gasped. "Did that bibbed lunatic eat her?! Sweet God!" The yellow-furred moogle who had been with Eiko at the mountain path slowly slinked out from behind a large rock and approached a very much unhappy Eiko, who nevertheless smiled and patted it on the head. "I'm not mad," she said warmly, "but try and stick with me from now on."
"K-Kupo... po-po-po!" tittered the moogle Mog, happy to be reunited with her mistress.
With Mog and the other moogles in tow Eiko led the party further inside the ruins of Madain Sari, and upon entering a small square with a half-destroyed fountain in the center of the streets she waved her hand and the moogles immediately scattered. Mog alone remained, and when Eiko gestured to her the moogle began to "kupo" frantically before slowly miniaturizing herself and hopping into Eiko's pocket, where she settled in comfortably against the child's breast pocket.
"Zidane?" Eiko murmured timidly, a flush coming over her face.
"Uh... yeah?" mumbled Zidane.
Eiko gestured over to a nearby bench and guided Zidane to sit next to her, where she plopped down and gave him a puppy dog face that would melt the heart of the most fiendish devil. "Tell me more about yourself!" she chirped. Though Zidane moved to answer Eiko quickly worked her way onto his lap and lay against his chest. "Where are you from? Who are you? What do you do? Where are you going?"
"Oh, uh... I-" Zidane stammered.
"What kind of foods do you like? What kind of girls do you like? What's your astrological sign? Tell me about your last birthday!" Eiko continued. Astonishingly enough the young girl seemed to be so entranced with Zidane that she scarcely noticed the bizarre look on his face as his eye began to twitch and his face started jerking. This girl was... so out of control that it wasn't even funny anymore.
Suppressing the confusion he felt Zidane lifted Eiko from his lap and set her down next to him on the bench. "My name is Zidane Tribal, I'm from Lindblum, and I'm a th-... adventurer," he said quickly. He didn't feel like telling the girl that he was a bandit, a rogue, and a heart-breaker. She didn't need to know the dirty details. "We're looking for a guy named Kuja, and the rest really doesn't matter..." Zidane mumbled.
"Of course it matters, dumb-dumb!" spat Eiko, to Zidane's shock. "Tell me more about yourself, you stupid jerk!"
Zidane, seeing that Dagger was sitting on a nearby rock with a dazed expression on her face, brushed Eiko aside and lifted himself up to approach her, which seemed to make Eiko outright livid with jealousy. "What's wrong with you...?" Zidane asked dumbly. "I've never seen you space out this badly before." When Dagger waved him off the thief sighed and dropped back down to sit next to Eiko. "Guess it's none of my business..." he muttered.
"Hey... Zidane?" Eiko said timidly. "Are you and Dagger just friends or... something else?"
"She's my sweet, wedded wife!" Zidane declared proudly.
"Remember... You're divorced now," Dagger said curtly. When Zidane let out a groan and hung his head in shame, Dagger rose and patted him on the shoulder in an attempt to reassure him that he was still her friend. "You really need to get a grip, man. Just get over it already."
"B-But it's so sad!" Zidane sobbed feebly.
"Everything is clean, kupo!" Mocha trilled, one of the moogles, as he floated towards the group.
Eiko smirked and rose to her feet with a triumphant grin, sure that her plan to make Zidane hers would soon bear fruit. She never realized that he was almost three times her age and clearly wasn't interested in her. "Right then! I'm gonna go get everything ready, so you guys just stay close, okay?" she tittered. Zidane and Dagger exchanged a brief glance and nodded, causing Eiko's face to droop into a nasty scowl. "I have even more work to do than I thought..." Eiko growled. "Stupid Zidane."
Parallel Perspective: A Black Mage's Rumination
With the party scattered to all corners of Madain Sari, Vivi found himself standing over a small ledge near Eiko's house and staring into the sea below. No. 288's words were still haunting him. Now he felt like he was carrying the weight of all the black mages on his back, a desperate desire to please them and their innocent naivety of the ways of the world, of life and death. None of the others but No. 288 showed any indication of understanding the meaning of the village's cemetery. Watching them fumble through life, unaware of their mortality, sparked feelings in the black mage that he'd never anticipated feeling.
No. 288 says I know what it means to live and die... I know I'll be dead one day, but I don't know anything in between it all. Dying... scares me. Where will I go? Will I still exist? Will I go somewhere where I can meet the others again one day...? I don't want to die. I don't want to go away forever. I have too many people I like.
Parallel Perspective: Dagger's Wandering Heart
Having broken away from Zidane, Dagger wandered back towards the entrance to Madain Sari to examine the many broken ruins that made up its architecture. As she stared at the stones, seemingly burned from an unknown flame, her heart's fire also began to intensify in its burning heat. While she'd read in a book that there was a tribe of summoners who once lived on the Mist Continent, she'd never anticipated seeing any of their ilk. She'd known that she held Eidolons inside her since she was a child, but never knew where they came from.
Mother used my Eidolons to commit mass murder. That's... so heavy. I wonder sometimes if I would have rather killed my Eidolons than let them be used so cruelly, but now that they're gone I... I can feel such a huge void in my heart. But what I keep coming back to is that here, I feel so... comfortable... like I've been here before...
Parallel Perspective: Eiko's Kitchen Woes
Though it wasn't much of a kitchen, she still took great pride in it. Her grandfather had cooked for her, but when he'd died the task of doing so fell on her... and it was an utter disaster. All she had to go on were a few old cookbooks and the memories of how to combine the ingredients, and her inexperience showed in the wretched food she'd created over the years. The other moogles had come to fear when it was her turn to cook, and she agreed every time she tasted the slop that she produced; the others were the ones who cooked most of the food nowadays.
Today, however, Eiko was in the mood to cook up some lovin'. Even so, her lack of talent and the importance of the meal certainly didn't encourage any of her moogle companions. "I'm going to cook up a meal so great that Zidane'll swoon over me!" declared Eiko proudly. She put her hands on her hips and scowled as her mind turned to her 'rival.' "Dagger clearly has a stake in him too, but dammit, I'm going to win! I'll cook a great meal and prove to him that I'm the better wife!" she chortled.
"Try again in about twelve years, kupo," Mocha shrugged. "I doubt he wants to end up in prison."
"I am an adult! And I can make adult decisions!" Eiko roared. "And get that 'I wish she could cook' look off of your face, mister!" she snarled, her fists balled. "You folks are going to cook and gosh darn it you're going to like it!"
"I'm tired, kupo... I don't wanna cook..." Momatose moaned.
"Oh, stuff it. You're cooking whether you want to or not," huffed Eiko. She put a finger to her mouth, her mind going a hundred miles a minute. She had to come up with a dish before she could smash Dagger's dreams. "I think I'll make my rock-fisted potato stew... my specialty!" she tittered.
"The last one you made gave us all diarrhea for two weeks, kupo..." Mocha mumbled. Despite receiving such a violent glare that his pom-pom almost jumped off his head, Mocha remained the voice of reason and continued to argue his point. "We ought to barbecue, too, kupo."
"Absolutely right! Get to digging up potatoes! And boiling water! And someone ought to fish up the juiciest piece of seafood you've ever seen in your life!" Eiko cheered.
"Um... Who does what, kupo?" asked Momatose.
"I don't know! You guys figure it out and I'll get to cooking!" ordered Eiko fiercely, a low cackle breaking her voice. "Ooh, he's going to love me!" she swooned as she grabbed her shoulders and shivered wildly.
"Scary as Eiko is... she's even scarier when she cooks for us, kupo..." whimpered Chimomo.
Parallel Perspective: Contemplating Life
While his friends split up Zidane remained in the courtyard with the fountain, working out his own emotions. He'd seen Dagger's strange behavior the whole way through the village, a bizarre sort of detachment that was already starting to frighten him. Even worse was Vivi. His friend had just stared his own identity in the eyes and clearly didn't like what he saw when it looked back. Quina? Who the hell knew where s/he was. Ever since they'd arrived on the Outer Continent all he'd seen his friends do was suffer. Not that he didn't suffer, too; Dagger's "divorce" was a stab in the gut to Zidane.
Zidane found Vivi stewing near the edge of the sea, where the black mage had been trying to rationalize his feelings about life and death. Upon approaching he could tell that Vivi's emotions were incredibly fragile, meaning that he'd need to approach cautiously. "You look like hell..." Zidane murmured. "Are you still thinking about everything that happened back in the Black Mage Village?"
"I've... done some thinking, but I haven't figured anything out yet," sighed Vivi.
Seeing Vivi so torn up was a heavy burden to Zidane's heart. The innocent, malleable young boy that he'd met the first time they'd crossed paths had matured into a serious-minded adult that had found his own mortality, faced up to it, and was still trying to gather the courage to fight it. "You deserve some time alone, I guess," shrugged Zidane. As he turned to leave Vivi grabbed hold of his sleeve and tugged him back. "I thought you wanted to think more?" he mumbled.
Vivi shook his head and sighed. He'd done nothing but think. Ever since he'd met the other black mages he'd been staring down the face of the reaper, distant as it was, with the only result being his own emotions becoming more and more muddled every minute he pondered. "I wanna know what it means to... to live," Vivi said quickly. "That's what I've been thinking of."
"Booze, money, and women... not necessarily in that order!" Zidane laughed. Vivi quietly turned back to the sea and bowed his head again, prompting Zidane to back down and lay a gentle hand on his friend's shoulder. "Sorry..." he murmured. "I got carried away."
Parallel Perspective: At the Eidolon Wall
While Eiko toiled in the kitchen, the other party members wandered Madain Sari gathering their thoughts, with Zidane meeting with Vivi shortly before he reunited with Dagger. One of the moogles, Morrison, interjected into their conversation and asked whether they wanted to see the Eidolon Wall, an offer that Dagger eagerly consented to. Morrison guided the duo to a small opening in the rocks, whispered something to the gatekeeper, and as the other moogle stormed away he guided Zidane and Dagger inside the structure.
Dagger's eyes had never widened like they were now, as she stared at the many murals sketched on the walls of the Eidolon Wall. She noticed a number of familiar faces - the Great Knight Odin, Shiva, the Monarch of Frost, and even the Dragon King Bahamut - all of which had once been her own Eidolons. She hungrily took in the colorful paintings, an overwhelming sense of familiarity steadily infecting her very soul. There didn't seem to be any good, rational explanation for the idea that her Eidolons were marked here, far from the Mist Continent.
"Where did... they get these images...?" Dagger asked breathlessly.
"The Eidolon Wall depicts every Eidolon that the summoner tribe has ever summoned, kupo," explained Morrison. "Eiko's Eidolons as well - Golem, the Titan of Earth; and Fenrir, the Fang of the Wind. Carbuncle, Lady of Reflection... Leviathan, Master of All Waters... Every last one was discovered during the tribe's research," he said plainly. "If there are any other Eidolons in the world, they haven't been documented yet."
Seeing her Eidolons here, so far from her home and so far from her heart, slowly forced tears into Dagger's eyes and she began to sob. Zidane quickly moved to hold her to his chest, but Dagger quietly brushed him away and wiped away her tears. "I want to be alone for a while," she sighed.
As Zidane turned away and left the temple, Dagger again stared down all the Eidolons that she once possessed, as well as Eiko's own. A large scratch mark slowly entered her vision, the scribbled image of a large Eidolon having been removed from the walls. It wasn't an Eidolon she'd ever encountered, nor Eiko's, and Dagger couldn't help but dread that the reason it wasn't up there any more was because it was too dangerous to even acknowledge.
Scene Two
Eiko's cooking adventures quickly snowballed into a group effort, aided by Quina and Vivi. When the meal was finally laid on the table, both the potato stew and the barbecued fish, through some miracle the food was not only edible but delicious. Everyone dug into the feast, Zidane most eagerly. When he began to choke on a fish bone and his world became darker and darker, Dagger deftly whacked him on the back and propelled the offender from his gullet, something that Eiko took notice of and wasn't pleased to see. She'd wanted to do it herself. After a long and satisfying dinner the team split up, with Dagger scanning the bookshelves of Eiko's house.
"So... Where are all the other summoners?" asked Zidane.
With a sigh, Eiko shook her head and moaned. "They're all dead. Everyone's gone but me... and the moogles are the only other people in the entire village," she said sadly. "Ten years ago, four years before I was born, something happened that wiped Madain Sari off the map... When I turn sixteen and my Eidolons mature, I can finally leave, though..." Eiko muttered. "Grandpa said that I can only use my Eidolons properly when I turn sixteen."
"That's... I'm sixteen," Dagger whispered as she paged through Eiko's library. "Is there a connection...?"
"I don't know how you even summon without a horn, though," Eiko muttered. "I guess it's like Lord Avon's 'Wishing Upon a Star,' you have a lucky star. Just like Zidane is my shooting star..." she swooned.
Dagger's focus returned to her when she realized that she'd run out of cookbooks minutes earlier. The rest of the books were Lord Avon's plays, the masterpieces of art that on the Mist Continent were the pinnacle of literature. Not only were they all present, they were first editions as well, meaning that they had to be at least five hundred years old. "There isn't any rational reason for a set of books from the Mist Continent to be in Madain Sari..." she murmured. "What on earth is going on here...? The plays, my Eidolons..."
"We want to go to the Iifa Tree, Eiko," Zidane said cautiously. He didn't even know if she'd entertain the idea, though. "Can you get us in there?"
"The way in is sealed by an Eidolon, one that the tribe couldn't fully tame, so we sealed it with another Eidolon," Eiko explained softly. "The second Eidolon guards the magical energy of the first, to keep it from overloading and releasing the Eidolon prematurely."
"Can you let us in, Eiko?" Zidane asked. "We need to get in to find someone."
"Are you nuts?! My Grandpa said that if I went there he'd start haunting me!" Eiko balked.
"We have a good reason, though... You might even save an entire continent," Zidane pressed. When he saw Eiko's reluctance, he hung his head and sighed. "Right then... Guess that idea's out..." he muttered.
Eiko shut her eyes tight and balled her fists, her own guilt fighting with her emotions. Her ancestors would never forgive her if she allowed them in... but she wanted to help Zidane more than almost anything. "Stay the night here and I'll think about it," she mumbled. When the others shuffled off to bed, Eiko quietly patted her horn and leaned back in her seat. "Grandpa's gonna be furious... but I wanna help him, if it means I can be with him more..."
The night was quiet, the twin moons casting down their light on the barren ruins below. It was here, at the same place that they'd met earlier, that Zidane found Vivi again ruminating as he watched the seas churn. He softly shuffled up next to his friend and pushed Vivi's head to his chest in an attempt to make him feel better. "Don't you want to get some sleep?" he asked quietly.
Vivi shut his eyes and shook his head, though the more he thought the closer to Zidane's heart his head nestled. "I don't know if I can keep going... and maybe going to the Iifa Tree really is a bad idea..." he mumbled weakly. "I don't know how I feel, what I feel, or why I feel it... or anything else... I just feel so empty..."
"Either go or don't go," Zidane said briskly. "There are two simple choices."
"The others don't have choices... They don't have any chance of living their lives and not dying prematurely..." moaned Vivi. "If they don't get a choice, then should I get one?"
Zidane bit his lip and nestled Vivi's head closer and deeper onto his breast. "Don't be so pessimistic. Vivi needs to take care of Vivi, and you have to follow your heart and do whatever it tells you to do..." Zidane murmured.
"But do I even have a heart...?" croaked Vivi. "Why was I born? Who gave me a reason and the right to live when the others have to die...? It isn't fair."
"Sorry to break it to you, but life isn't fair," Zidane said plainly. "With the odds stacked against you, all you can do is fight."
Vivi chuckled and shuffled even closer to Zidane. "You're like a big brother to me," he said softly. "The big brother I always wished I had. Thank you, Zidane..."
In the morning the party awoke and gathered together at the entrance to the settlement, having not seen Eiko or the moogles for the entire time that they'd been waiting. Judging by that Eiko's answer was clearly 'no,' meaning that the chances of actually entering the Iifa Tree had become slim to none. Even so, they had to try. If the Iifa Tree really was connected to the Mist they'd have to figure out how at some point, and if Kuja was involved then the importance multiplied by a factor of ten. They had to get inside.
"I want to come back someday, Zidane. I feel like I'm so close to an answer..." Dagger murmured, and Zidane nodded as they turned to leave. They suddenly heard a loud 'kupo!' and the moogles of Madain Sari poured out from around the village with Eiko close behind, dressed for an adventure and packing her miniature racket. "Have you come to see us off, then, Eiko?" she asked incredulously. "Or..."
"The only way you're getting inside is if you got me," Eiko insisted, jabbing her thumb to her heart.
"Why did you change your mind, Eiko?" asked Zidane. When Eiko began to fidget Zidane sighed and put a hand to his hip. The reason didn't matter as much as the result did. "We'll be glad to have you along," he said warmly, which brightened Eiko's spirits and widened her eyes with elation.
"But is it really a good idea to take a six-year-old into enemy territory...?" mumbled Dagger.
"Why wouldn't it be?" Zidane shrugged. Dagger's face twisted into a scowl and she angrily stormed out of the village, leaving Zidane to think over what he'd just said. It really was an audacious idea, not to mention a terrible one, but there wasn't any other option that they could take. As the magnitude of his words slowly sunk in, Zidane buried his face in his hands and groaned. "I just said something stupid again..." he moaned.
"Hey! I'm almost seven!" Eiko snapped. Zidane shook his head and quietly walked away with Vivi to join with Dagger, leaving Eiko to fume and fester. Why wouldn't she be alright to take? She was an adult! On top of that... "He doesn't even realize we're fighting over him," she growled, "so I guess I should expect that he'd be so damned stubborn."
Scene Three
The Iifa Tree lay beyond the Conde Petie Mountain Path, moving to the west, and to get there the party would again have to traverse the root-covered pass. The journey wasn't pleasant, with another Troll attack that Vivi fended off using a new spell, but eventually they reached their destination. When they arrived they found the huge, mushroom-shaped tree standing out of the landscape with hundreds if not thousands of roots scattered across the area. The air was thick with Mist, and although there weren't any monsters the feeling remained strong: the malice, oozing from the cracks in the earth, desired nothing less than to swallow you whole and crush your soul to bits.
Staring up at the monstrous tree Dagger's face dropped and she was forced to cover her mouth to keep herself from screaming. There was something clearly sinister here. "The only reason Mist would be here is if this is the source of it..." she murmured, grabbing her shoulders and shaking from the evil chill in the air. "What kind of Pandora's Box are we going to be opening up...? Is this really a good idea...?"
Zidane straightened his belt and brushed his hands against his daggers, ready to draw them at a moment's notice. He wasn't any more convinced than she was that this was even remotely a good idea. "We don't have much choice... This tree is our best clue to finding Kuja," Zidane said resolutely. Dagger silently bit her lip and, quietly acquiescing, stepped back to allow Eiko to approach the structure.
"The barrier that binds the tree is actually a secondary seal. The main reason that the barrier is here is to restrain an Eidolon that the tribe couldn't control, so they used another Eidolon to seal it off," Eiko explained nervously. "I don't know what it is, but Grandpa said that it was a rival to the Dragon King Bahamut... meaning, it's pretty damned bad ass." She quietly stretched out her hands and touched the barrier, felt the sparkling stardust tingle her fingers, and again her grandfather's orders not to approach the tree echoed again in her head.
Am I making the right decision...? No. I have to believe in Zidane and the others.
"Lady of Reflection, Eidolon of Mirrors!" Eiko called out grandly. "Sealed Eidolon Carbuncle, come to me!"
From the space where Eiko's fingertips touched the air a slim sparkle of red light began to form, steadily widening and expanding to create a large circle of green summoning orbs. As she raised her hand the orbs began to rotate around her, slowly converging between her palm and forming a thin red sphere that eventually solidified into a beautiful Ruby, and with a low hum the barrier visibly erased itself from the area, the light fading into sparkles of stardust that scattered to the winds and left a tiny tingling in the air. Eiko quietly tightened her grip on the Ruby and stashed it inside her jumpsuit.
That did, indeed, seem to have been a poor choice in judgment when the full force of the Mist struck them like a speeding airship. Vivi, chilled to the bone, gripped his shoulders with both hands and shivered. Apparently the barrier was restraining more than just the entrance to the Iifa Tree. Now that the shield had been lowered it was clear that the malicious hatred spawned by the Mist had come out in full force. The air was chilly, wind piercing his flesh like countless needles that tingled his arms, legs, and body. Zidane and Dagger similarly noted the evil that now permeated the atmosphere, while Eiko shuddered from the sheer hatred that she was now exposed to.
"Ugh... It's heavy..." croaked Eiko. She'd never felt anything so cold, so cruel. The idea that there was an entire continent full of the stuff chilled her soul. "Mog says she won't come out, so let's get in and get out as quick as we can. This place has some seriously bad mojo."
There really wasn't anything else to do but proceed, so they did. The party crossed over the roots of the titanic tree, over such a large span of area that it took over twenty minutes to even come close to the Iifa Tree. As they navigated the many wildly shaped roots that lead towards the trunk the Mist continued to fog up their sight. Below the roots was a conglomeration of Mist, a curtain of evil intent so thick that it would have swallowed them if they made a single wrong step, so they had to proceed slowly and carefully.
"We're at a dead end..." Vivi lamented. "All I see there is a big tree."
Zidane immediately put himself between his friends and the "tree," having sensed murderous intent from it. What it looked like was a large mass of stony tentacles, with a central trunk and countless other smaller limbs that wobbled side to side as if they had put up their dukes for a fight. It also had four proper limbs that extended from it in all four diagonal directions. The Iifa Tree had any number of undead abominations hiding inside it, but this was the only fiendish freak that played possum rather than just tried to eat your face off.
The Stroper opened its many eyes and let out a violent bellow as its limbs began to wildly thrash and flail around. Both summoners drew their rackets and slung two shots at the creature's belly, only for the Stroper to absorb the attacks. Rearing back, the monster lashed out with one of its tendrils and caught the party on the legs, which dropped them to their backs and left them winded and wounded on the ground. The Stroper again bellowed and lashed out again, and the barrage of blows threatened to become too much to dodge.
As the onslaught continued both Vivi and Zidane burst out in flashes of light and emerged in Trance. With the Stroper's attacks coming closer the black mage threw out both hands and sent a large orb of fire at the beast, a flaming orb that had the power to obliterate the monster but wouldn't reach in time. Zidane somersaulted backwards and, by stabbing Rune Tooth into the sphere, slung it forward with such tremendous force and speed that the attack wholly engulfed the Stroper and burnt it to ashes, flailing and shrieking all the way down to the grave.
When the Stroper's remains faded the road did indeed seem to be a dead end. The one wrinkle in that train of thought, however, was a small, triangular glyph embedded in the center of the platform where the Stroper had once been. Eiko stashed her racket behind her back and, carefully examining it, noted that the symbol was a blue triangle separated into a total of three closely connected red triangles, with an eye in the center of the glyph.
"It looks ancient..." Eiko gasped. "Is it some sort of gate? An elevator?"
Zidane cautiously examined the glyph as he approached it, and with his heart beating rapidly he could sense the same malice oozing from it as the Mist produced. Whatever was down there was not going to be pleasant to meet. The more he stared at it, however, the more familiar the symbol became. He slowly approached and tapped his fingers on the glyph, only for it to give way and reveal a large gap in the tree that Zidane only narrowly avoided falling in by grabbing onto the side of the hole and pushing himself back to safety. The elevator returned and, as the others looked on, Zidane slowly stepped towards the platform.
"And just what the hell do you think you're doing?!" Dagger hissed as she caught Zidane by the back of his vest and pulled him away from the platform. She turned him around, grabbed him by the shoulders, and as Dagger glared at him she violently shook her friend back and forth hard enough to jostle the stupid out of him. "You are not going alone!" she growled. "We all go, or none of us go!"
"Dagger's right... The Mist feels like it's getting angrier the deeper down we get..." murmured Vivi, brushing the sweat from his brow with the back of his sleeve. "Down below, if there really is what makes the Mist... I... don't think it wants to see us here..."
"And you have a better suggestion?" Zidane droned. With neither Dagger nor Vivi able to find an argument against him, Zidane gently set Dagger down and removed her hands from his shoulders. She knew what he was going to say; she just didn't want to hear it. "We came here for a reason. Let's see it through."
There really wasn't another choice. They'd crossed the continents to find Kuja, and if they could destroy what was sending Mist to their continent all the better. With Dagger's argument debunked the party descended the elevator and entered the belly of the Iifa Tree. What they found was a dark, almost lightless spiral of roots ridged with strange webs of an unknown substance, and as they proceeded the Mist became thicker and more malicious with every step they took. Eventually they reached a large, double-helix-shaped structure that seemed to lead even further inside. It was sickly green, and the Mist that it emitted was as green as it was - and just as menacing. There was a webbed platform near the double-helix, presumably the way further in, but three monsters stood guard as they dropped down from above. What used to be human did not appear so now. These monstrosities resembled a person, except stripped of flesh and reduced to a mass of bones with a few rotting strips of skin.
Taking initiative, Zidane drew his daggers and slung his Gladius at one of the Zombies, immediately severing its head and dropping it to the green ground beneath. To his horror, however, the monster simply reached down and grabbed the skull, set it back on its shoulders, and the sinew reconnected with a loud and sickening clack. The Zombie immediately went to work by slashing at him with its vicious claws, only to be blasted back from an air bullet provided by Dagger, straight to the face.
The second Zombie, the one that Dagger hadn't struck, made a bum rush towards her in an attempt to consume her. Dagger swiftly switched her grip on her weapon so that its blade faced forward, reared back, and in a single swing cut the Zombie in half down the middle. Although both sides continued to writhe, because the Zombie had been bisected it couldn't reconstruct itself. Vivi was able to incinerate the third monster, and Zidane managed to quarter his Zombie and kicked the remains down into the green abyss below.
Although she was barely able to contain her lunch Dagger breathlessly returned her racket to her belt. When she saw Eiko hopping up and down on the strange webbing, however, she reached for her and dragged her off of it, plopped her down on the ground, and angrily clapped her hands on the young girl's shoulders before shaking her back and forth violently. Sure, she held back from doing any lasting damage, but Dagger made certain that Eiko got her message: "Never do that again. Ever."
"What is wrong with you?" Dagger rasped.
"I had to make it move somehow, right?" Eiko shot back. "We need to get down, right?"
"Not if it means you fall to your death!" choked Dagger. "You might have been poisoned by that gunk!"
"But I wasn't, right? Besides... There has to be a key somewhere, but I don't see anywhere to put it..." Eiko sighed. "No idea what the key would look like, either..."
"Why don't we all stand on it?" Vivi asked innocently. "Maybe it needs a certain amount of weight...?"
Despite Dagger's protests Zidane guided his friends onto the webbed platform. When Zidane himself stepped on it, however, the entire thing disconnected from the floor and began to spiral down deeper into the Mist, a wild and breakneck journey with no good ending in sight. Zidane realized that, despite the fact that they were moving rapidly, they experienced no wind. He chalked it up to the strange green mist that surrounded the platform, but beyond that he couldn't really make any other assumptions.
As Vivi plopped down on his seat and Dagger cautiously watched the spiral continue, Eiko opened her pocket and whispered something to Mog. She clearly didn't like the response, as the young summoner immediately began to shake and brushed the sweat from her brow. "Mog says that there's a lot of... life below us," she said shakily. "Lots and lots and lots of it."
"What does that mean, life?" asked Dagger.
"It means what it means: life, what animates the body," Eiko said quickly. "I'm guessing most people call it a soul."
"Why would there be a lot of souls down there...?" asked Vivi.
Though there were many questions left unanswered they quickly took a backseat to a new problem: a large creature that had forced its way inside the platform. Clearly it was a dragon, but one that had seen better days. Its flesh was rotting, its wings decaying, and the stench of the creature was enough to make their stomachs churn. It was positioned in the center of the four party members, having dropped down from above.
The Dragon Zombie threw its tail at Zidane, who quickly hopped over it and cut a gash in its tail. When the monster returned with a claw swipe, however, Zidane barely blocked it and was thrown off of the platform. Before he could fall to his inevitable death, however, the green mist forced him back inside the platform, where he fell to his knees gasping for breath. The sheer terror was more than he thought his heart could handle.
"The mist is sealing us in..." Zidane gasped breathlessly. As he drew his daggers, he slid his foot into a ready position. If they didn't have to worry about falling off... "Meaning... We don't need to hold back."
Zidane hurled Rune Tooth at the monster, and with a single slash the dagger cut open a nick in the Dragon Zombie's face. Unfortunately it did little to aid their cause, as it swiped at the thief with its tail and nearly struck him. The monkey-tailed brigand pushed off against the mist behind him, drew back both arms, and finally cut a cross-shaped gash in the Dragon Zombie's head. Dagger and Eiko added in a volley of air bullets, Vivi provided a blast of lightning, and finally the creature seemed to be on the ropes, its flesh torn and bones ripped.
When the Dragon Zombie breathed out a wave of deathly poison at Eiko she quickly put her hands together in prayer and was again surrounded by the flaming green orbs. Before the monster's breath attack could hit a strange creature manifested in front of Eiko: a tiny green, three-foot-tall little sprite with a gleaming red mirror in the center of its head, the Lady of Reflection and Eidolon of Mirrors, Carbuncle. Carbuncle's shield blocked and reflected the Dragon Zombie's own attack, turning it against it and slowly, agonizingly, and frighteningly dissolved the monster as if it were being melted in an acid bath.
Dagger grabbed her shoulders and shivered as she watched the horrific spectacle, and as she dropped to her knees Vivi and Eiko quickly joined her. Zidane alone remained standing and sheathed his daggers, turning towards the edge of the platform and staring down deep into the murky green abyss. Whatever was down there, whatever its intent was, it was going to be much stronger than what they'd just fought... and it scared the hell out of him.
Scene Four
The ride down never got any less creepy, spiraling down the double helix towards what presumably was either the center of the Iifa Tree or the bowels of Hell. When they ceased to move the party found themselves on top of a large, two-tiered platform, with Mist oozing all throughout the area and permeating the air. The walls themselves seemed to be a sort of liquid Mist, flowing down towards the core with all the sinister malice that the normal Mist brought about.
While Eiko and Vivi departed towards the bottom layer, Dagger stayed back with Zidane to watch the walls contort. It was horrifying, not just what they were seeing but what they were feeling, too. "Do you remember the factory at Dali? Where they were making black mages out of Mist?" Dagger murmured, eyes trained on the pooling liquid beneath. She turned a wary eye to Zidane and bit her lip. "This place must be where the Mist comes from... where the black mages originate. Whatever is down there clearly doesn't want us here."
"I can tell that much..." muttered Zidane. As he examined the place, however, there was a strange familiarity that he felt, almost as if he had been here before. "More than that, this structure doesn't only look artificial... it's alive," he said warily. "We're inside of some sort of twisted, living creature... and I don't want to stay here long..."
Zidane broke away from Dagger and descended the stairway, where he found Vivi and Eiko staring down into what seemed to be a fountain, a fountain with strings of green liquid oozing from the platform above to the abyss below. A great rumbling struck as did the realization that Dagger was alone upstairs, so Zidane hurriedly grabbed hold of her and pulled her down to the ground floor as the trembling continued to intensify.
As the walls continued to shake a large object dropped down from high above, but seemed to catch on the side of the platform. What emerged from beneath the wailing abyss was a large, demonic tree-like creature with two thick shoulders that each were the size of a tree apiece and resembled as such. Its center was a twisted mockery of a human, with a gnarled face that would make even demons tremble. Zidane quickly drew his daggers and put himself between the beast and his friends, but he was just as frightened as they were.
"Where's Kuja?" Zidane asked coldly. He didn't want to admit that his shirt was ruined.
"I do not know. He has his own business."
"Are you... what makes the mist...?" murmured Dagger.
"Mist is not manufactured. It is simply a byproduct of the refining process. My roots do, however, carry it to your continent. If you wish to consider me the origin of the Mist, I cannot say that you are wrong."
"Yeah... Let's go with that..." groaned Dagger, her hand inching towards her racket. "Now, what the hell are you doing it for?"
"Mist sickens the human soul and manifests powerful monsters. Both are perfect for inciting war and provoking death, which is exactly what it was made to do. With the coming of war is unspeakable hatred and violence, and from violence comes death. Kuja's pet project of manufacturing soulless golems to wreak havoc was his own invention, though it wasn't an unwelcome one. The more death, all the better."
Vivi's body at first had been quaking with fear, but as he heard the words 'soulless golems' his heart went cold and every drop of blood went still. He took in what he'd just heard, stumbled back, but when he caught himself fear had begun to change into anger. "So the black mages really are supposed to be tools of mass murder..." he whispered. As his fist tightened his contempt began to escalate. "They deserve better than that."
"Defeat me and no more Mist will be produced, meaning that the golems will no longer be produced. Is that what you desire, golem? Do you desire to end the reproduction of your own kind?"
"You rotten son of a...!" Zidane choked as his grip tightened. That was far too much to take. "You really want me to kill you that badly?!"
With a deep breath in Vivi exhaled sharply and his eyes narrowed at the Soulcage. "No more. No more death and no more destruction! I won't let you use the black mages as instruments of genocide!" Vivi roared. "What happened back on our continent can't happen again, and it won't. The black mages deserve better than that! And if I can't find a better way," he declared as his body broke out in light, "all I can do is end the cycle by killing you! The killing stops here!"
"V-Vivi..." Dagger whispered softly. She'd never seen the black mage so legitimately... furious.
"Defeating me is meaningless. The process has been in production for too long. It is meaningless to try. I have seen the end of my multi-millennial lifespan and it is not here. Whatever you do to me here, the blue light shall turn red soon."
Now fully immersed in Trance, Vivi summoned a titanic column of fire and slung it at the Soulcage. While it struck and caught fire the demon didn't burn, but instead breathed out a massive gust of flaming breath that seemed ready to consume the black mage. Zidane, unwilling to allow that to happen, surged into Trance as well and put himself between the Soulcage and his friends and released all the energy he could at the blast. The combined lights, multicolored and wildly tinted, slowly faded and Zidane too slumped to his knees in exhaustion. He had nothing left.
As the Soulcage inhaled a deep breath, preparing to launch its own assault, Eiko and Dagger suddenly broke out in light, and as Dagger emerged in Trance Eiko too broke through the shining energy and revealed a new state. Eiko's appearance immediately changed as the light faded. Her ceremonial wings became longer and her horn much thicker and extended, and all the colors of her clothing changed into white and purple. On top of that, her blue hair had changed into a brilliant emerald green.
The two summoners threw their hands to their sides and slowly lifted up off the ground, their mixture of Wind and Holy energy freeing them from the bindings of gravity. Four orbs formed, one in each hand, and as the wind continued to intensify they both hurled the spheres at the Soulcage, which caused them to encircle, engulf, and incinerate the Soulcage from the tip of its head to the bottom of its trunk. As the Soulcage began to writhe Zidane beckoned his friends to the elevator, which they rode up into the center of the tree even as the Soulcage's final death throes ripped holes in the walls and shattered their eardrums.
"The cycle is unstoppable! The union shall soon come, and Gaia shall cease to exist! For the sake of-"
The Soulcage's final words were droned out by the roaring inferno of heat and flame that accompanied the party to the top of the tree, where they departed the elevator platform and found that they'd emerged in a whole new world. The Mist, the infernal construct that fueled Brahne's murder machine and forced the black mages into being used as tools of war had begun to recede, though some of it still remained behind as a residual side effect. Far away on the Mist Continent, meanwhile, the shroud of darkness was finally lifted and the world was saved from the threat of the Mist's malice once and for all.
Vivi's thoughts were more muddled than anything else. It wasn't lost on him what he'd just done. Vivi stared out at the ruined tree, watched as the Mist receded, and quietly put a hand to his heart to pray. "Will they understand...?" he whispered. "Will they condemn me...?"
Dagger took Vivi in her arms and held his head close to her heart, pulling him into a deep embrace. The boy had borne a burden that no child should ever have to bear. Although he didn't tremble or cry, the princess could feel all the will in Vivi's body leave him. "We came here to stop the killing..." she murmured as she gripped Vivi's head close to her heart. "By destroying that thing, we did just that. We did what we came for..."
"But will it even make a difference? Your mother has an army of black mages and a bunch of Eidolons," Vivi said quietly. "Do we even have a chance of stopping her now...?"
"We'll stop her somehow," insisted Dagger. "We'll make my mother stop. I believe that."
Moco, one of the moogles from Madain Sari, zipped into the scene in a panic, something that Eiko immediately took notice of. "The jewel your family's been guarding was stolen, kupo!" he lamented. "We need to find it immediately, kupo!"
Eiko frantically moved to leave but skidded to a stop by digging her boot into the rocky soil. She turned back around, saw the resolve in her friends' eyes, and wiped the tears from her own face. "You're all willing to put Kuja on hold for me?" she asked softly. Receiving three nods, the summoner smirked and pumped her fist. "Then let's go take it back!"
Scene Five
With the Iifa Tree behind them the party hurried off back to Madain Sari. When they arrived they found the settlement in chaos, with the moogles chattering and scattered all across the village. Eiko immediately made a beeline to a small enclave near her kitchen, and as the others followed they found her staring in horror at an empty jewelry box that reposed on a small altar. Biting her lip to contain herself, Eiko silently shook her head and tightened her knuckles.
"You crying...?" whispered Zidane.
Eiko turned around and smacked Zidane in the face hard, and tearfully the young girl began to sob uncontrollably. "Idiot! I'm an adult, and adults don't cry!" Eiko insisted desperately. She wiped the tears from her face and quietly dropped to her seat with a huff. "I'm a grownup! And grownups don't cry..." she croaked, her fists balled.
Taking her in his arms Zidane held Eiko close to his heart and cradled her crying form in a tight embrace. "It isn't a sin to cry. Even I cry sometimes. Just let it out..." he whispered, shortly before the dam broke and Eiko fell into his arms sobbing and shrieking in grief. As he stroked the girl's hair Zidane softly held her closer to his breast and tightened his grip. "We'll get it back..." Zidane murmured. "We'll all look."
"I-I need to speak to my ancestors..." sniffed Eiko, brushing past Zidane and hurrying out of the room.
"It was very noble for you to say that, Zidane," Dagger said quietly.
"Aww... Come on, girl! Give me a kiss, sweetie!" Zidane swooned. He suddenly cried out in pain when Dagger took her boot and stomped it hard on his foot, dropping him to his back gasping for air.
Dagger scowled and folded her arms over her chest with a huff. "I didn't mean it like that and you know it. And," she said more menacingly, "it won't happen again. Right?" Dagger growled. Zidane weakly nodded and massaged his aching foot.
"Y-Yes, ma'am..." Zidane squeaked feebly.
The sudden cry of a young girl immediately snapped the two out of their argument and they both hurried out of the room, only to be greeted by a very distressed Vivi. "That girl with the axe..." he stammered weakly. "The one from the excavation site! She's got Eiko!"
Zidane exchanged a brief glance with Dagger, then the trio hurried from Eiko's kitchen on a beeline for the Eidolon Wall. Upon arrival the party found a host of very worried moogles congregating just outside of the temple, pom-poms wiggling and squat bodies jiggling. When Zidane carefully ducked his head inside he found Lani, her axe in one hand and Eiko's wings in the other, struggling to contain the young girl. With Eiko flailing and cursing wildly, Zidane retreated back to his friends with a worried expression on his face.
Noticing that Mog had stayed behind, Zidane gestured towards her, indicating that he had a plan. The yellow-furred moogle let out a weak 'kupo!' and slowly inched towards the inside of the Eidolon Wall. Zidane held up three fingers, folded them to two, and when his fist clenched the party hurried inside the Eidolon Wall and found Eiko dangling limply from Lani's grip, seemingly unconscious.
"You witch!" Dagger snarled. "What did you do to-"
"I gave the little punk sleeping weed. Ever try it before?" Lani asked bluntly. Zidane shot Dagger a nasty glance and she sheepishly shrugged her shoulders before they both turned back to their enemy. "The pendant. Now. I'm sure you don't want to see the little whelp lose her head," she snickered. She saw the jewel in Zidane's hand, a wicked gleam in her eye, and the headhunter's smile widened. "Bring it here. No... Give it to the black mage and have him give it to me. You look like you have some sort of plan, and I don't want any nonsense from you... So, give it."
Biting his lip in frustration Zidane muttered a curse before tossing Vivi the jewel. Clearly his plan wouldn't work. As Vivi slowly waddled towards the headhunter her smile abruptly ended when the redheaded bounty hunter took his foot and shoved it onto her cheek, sending her flying into the wall. Dagger quickly moved towards her friend and caught Eiko before she could fall, and while Lani recovered she angrily lifted her axe and pointed it at the redhead menacingly.
"Give it back. I don't work with scumbags like you," the bounty hunter growled as he cracked his knuckles menacingly. Lani's resolve slowly melted, knowing her comrade's reputation for following through with his threats, so she tossed him Eiko's jewel and vaulted out of the Eidolon Wall towards an unknown destination. The redhead threw the stone into Zidane's hand, then slowly fell into an offensive position with his claws drawn. "Fight me," he snarled. "You have the girl, you have the stone. Fight me!"
Dumbfounded, Dagger turned to Zidane and saw the confidence in his eyes, the eyes of a man who knew he had to fight and was ready to throw down. Despite biting her lip and against her better judgment the princess quickly spirited Eiko away from the complex, leaving Zidane and the redhead to face one another. The redhead suddenly made his move and jumped towards the thief, who parried with his Gladius, catching the bounty hunter's claw well before it struck him.
Even then it wasn't enough. The bounty hunter simply forced his way through and cut a gash in Zidane's shoulder, with Zidane soon returning the favor. They clashed inconclusively for several blows though when Zidane, sighting Dagger staring at him in desperation, forced the redhead away and shut his eyes tight. The light returned, sending Zidane into a Trance, and he quickly ended the fight by blasting the bounty hunter with enough force to nearly knock him unconscious, causing him to slump against the side of the Eidolon Wall.
As darkness overtook him the redhead clawed his way back to consciousness out of sheer willpower and opened his eyes to find Zidane, who had sheathed his daggers and was now gripping his injured shoulder. The bounty hunter scowled and dragged himself from where he lay, weakly inched towards the thief, and contemptuously bowed his head to him. "You won," he said with a voice full of bile. "Fine. Kill me."
Zidane smirked and shook his head, to the redhead's outrage. As the bounty hunter's anger began to peak the thief's smile widened and he produced his middle finger to his nemesis. "Why should I give you the satisfaction?" he asked sheepishly. "Ow! Dagger..." Zidane whimpered, dropping to one knee in pain. Dagger quickly hurried to his side and healed his shoulder, leaving Zidane to walk towards the bounty hunter and extend his hand. The redhead angrily knocked it away, stumbled to his feet, and like Lani vaulted high over the barrier of the Eidolon Wall, defeated.
Back at the room where the jewel had been stolen Eiko returned the stone to its box and shut it tight. After a few moments of thought, however, she drew it back out and turned to Zidane with a smile on her face, indicating what she was about to do didn't cause her any trouble at all. She was ready to spread her wings. "Can I come with you guys?" she asked cheerfully.
"If I say no, you'll just follow us..." grinned Zidane, who extended his hand and took Eiko's in his own. "Welcome aboard, Eiko. You're just as nuts as the rest of us, so you'll fit right in!"
Eiko nodded and quietly clipped the jewel to her ear as an earring. When Mog weakly peeked inside the room Eiko softly gestured for her to approach, though when she did Eiko smacked her hard over the head. "You are never going to do that again, you hear me?! Next time you want to ditch me, don't!" she snarled, and Mog nodded. Eiko gestured and Mog miniaturized herself again, jumping inside her pocket. "Let's go kick some butt, guys!" Eiko beamed.
Scene Six
The stress endured by the group had warranted a full night's rest, however. During the night Zidane again talked with Vivi, this time with Dagger chiming in, while Eiko ruminated in her bedroom about what she'd done and what she was about to do. She fondly rubbed the Memory Earring between her fingers and tightened her grip, her will to continue on overriding any guilt she felt. Besides that, she still hadn't given up on seducing Zidane, despite the obvious fact being that she was twelve years too young to even consider and that he wasn't interested.
In the morning the party assembled at the gates of Madain Sari to prepare themselves for their second foray into the Iifa Tree. Before they could leave, however, the moogles who had guarded Eiko her entire life had come out to give them a raucous goodbye. There were many tears and just as many laughs as Eiko said her farewells, and after stashing Mog in her pocket Eiko turned to leave, but was silenced when she heard a sharp whistle behind her and swiveled around to see the redhead glaring down at them from above the settlement. Though most of those assembled flinched and shouted out a nasty word or two, Zidane remained calm and confident.
"Did you come for another fight?" Zidane asked cockily.
The redheaded bounty hunter vaulted high and landed in front of Zidane and the others, seemingly barring their path. Staring at his nemesis, the one who had forced a bounty on his head, he felt neither hatred nor fear. He felt contempt, a contempt that stemmed from the simple fact that Zidane had denied him an honorable death in battle. "Why did you let me live?" he growled. Zidane simply shrugged and gave a sheepish smile, so enraging the redhead that he grabbed hold of Zidane by the collar and hoisted him into the air. "Bastard! Give me what I seek or I'll rip your head off!" the redhead roared.
Zidane, totally unaffected by the threat, grabbed the redhead's arm and shoved him back, to the bounty hunter's fury. "You have that much of a death wish? That's just sad," Zidane said coolly. "If you feel like dying, put that strength to use and help us fight Kuja," he smirked. When Dagger and his friends balked and the redhead narrowed his eyes at him, Zidane shrugged and stretched his neck. "Just a thought. You want to know why I spared you? Follow me and you might get your answer... Or not and we'll just ride you like a workhorse, either/or."
Eiko angrily grabbed Zidane by the pants and tugged them back and forth, enraged at the idea that he'd invited someone who had tried to kill him to join his own group. As Zidane continued to stare down the redhead with a confident smirk on his face, it was Dagger who lost her composure and kicked Zidane hard in the shin, dropping him immediately. "Hey, like I said! Just an idle thought! Ow!" Zidane moaned. Dagger simply stared him down and the monkey-tailed thief quietly relented and moved into a sitting position. "Tell me we don't need help," he said coolly. "This guy pushed me to my limits. That has to mean something about how useful he'd be."
"I... accept," the bounty hunter said through gritted teeth. "But try and pull anything and I'll stuff my boot where the sun doesn't shine."
"What are we supposed to call you?" Zidane asked briskly. Seeing the redhead's indifference, Zidane smirked and rose to his feet. "Your bounty poster over in Treno calls you 'Amarant.' Why don't we go with that?" he chuckled as he stretched his arms behind his head.
"I saw his wanted poster in Treno!" gasped Dagger. "You want him to come with us?!" In Zidane's eyes, however, the princess saw a sort of quiet resolve, and so she relented and folded her arms over her chest and huffed. "Another misfit joining can't hurt too much," she mumbled. "This one might kill us if we look away, though, so be on your guard... or else," Dagger grumbled. "If this guy slits my throat I'm going to haunt you for the rest of your life."
"Hey, hey! Everything's cool! No need to go all Terminator on me!" chided Zidane.
"Ha ha... I'll take you at your word for it," Dagger chuckled, sticking her tongue out playfully. "I ought to trust you enough by now, right?"
In order to reach the Iifa Tree, of course, they had to cross the Conde Petie Mountain Path yet again. Just as they attempted to enter, however, two enemies barred their path. Twice the size of any of them, the Carve Spider was a large arachnoid that was nonvenomous. Its mandibles and mighty limbs, however, made poison the least of their problems. Though Zidane drew his daggers his head jolted forward when Amarant whacked him on the head and moved to confront the Carve Spiders himself. He intended to show them what he was capable of.
The two Carve Spiders attacked in unison, aiming to catch Amarant with their arms, but each time they attempted to attack he swiftly and adroitly slipped out of the way as if he were attempting a sort of elegant dance. As the monsters began to get more and more irritated Amarant drew his claws and slashed three large holes in the body of one of the Carve Spiders, immediately shredding it to death. As the second Carve Spider turned and ran Amarant rustled through his vest and withdrew a strange object, a sort of bladed ring with a small indentation to grip onto it. The redhead suddenly flicked it at the monster, sending it through the air in a wide spiral that cut off the Carve Spider's head before returning to Amarant. While Vivi was in shock and very much amazed, Dagger only grew more worried and shot a nasty look at Zidane, who flinched and scratched the back of his head in frustration. It really was looking like a bad idea more and more as time went on...
Scene Seven
The Conde Petie Mountain Path offered up no resistance this time. It might have been that word of Amarant's sortie with the Carve Spiders had passed through the grape vine, or perhaps they just got lucky. After crossing a wide span of area the party arrived back at the Iifa Tree, where they found it just as menacing as before. This time, however, the Mist had been significantly thinned and the air around the tree felt much lighter.
Zidane let out a whistle and patted Dagger on the back, happy that they'd had a part in cleansing the world of such a vile sickness. "The Mist is mostly gone..." he said idly. "Guess we showed that thing what's what and the Mist really did start to clear up."
"Why wouldn't there be Mist here...?" mumbled Amarant.
As he adjusted his hat Vivi's thoughts had again begun to wander. He still wasn't sure how the other black mages would feel about what they'd done. With a sigh he clapped his hands together and dusted off his hat. "When we defeated that thing that made the Mist, it apparently cleared it up all over the world," he said proudly. Amarant, stunned, could voice no words at the idea that his new teammates had fixed the worldwide menace single-handedly.
The Mist? Them? What the hell kind of people are these guys?!
"There! In the distance!" Vivi exclaimed, pointing towards the northwestern corner of the continent. "It's the same Silver Dragon that Kuja rode back in Burmecia!"
"Our prey has arrived... Whether that's good for either of us, I can't say," muttered Zidane. "We need to close in and take him out as fast as possible before he pulls any stunts." The five warriors hurried through the still-misty roots that led towards the Iifa Tree, though when they reached a certain point, where Kuja was in sight and still reachable, there was no place for them to walk to. "The only way is to climb," Zidane mused. "No way the others can get there, though."
Amarant scoffed and adjusted his sleeves, unsure what the problem was. "You and I can go alone. Isn't that obvious?" he asked brusquely. Zidane quietly shook his head, causing Amarant to bite his lip and clench his knuckles. "You mean to tell me we're supposed to haul all this dead weight into a war zone?!" choked Amarant. "Tell me here and now what kind of use they'd have against a damned sorcerer that can destroy entire cities."
"That's academic, 'cause we all go together or we don't go at all," grinned Zidane, his eyes wild with determination. "If we can find a Gargant somewhere and some grass..." he murmured. Seeing Amarant grab hold of Eiko and Vivi, hoisting him on his shoulders, the thief's eye twinkled mischievously. "Or we could carry them!" chortled Zidane. "On my back, Dagger! We're going to go kick some ass!"
Despite Dagger's obvious reluctance Zidane eventually managed to convince her to ride him piggyback while he climbed up the Iifa Tree, with Amarant hoisting Vivi and Eiko on his back as he scaled the tree himself. It would be a long climb, however, as Kuja was a good ways into the distance and was situated on a root too far away for them to confront him directly. If they were going to take him out, it'd be on the spell casters.
High atop the Iifa Tree, Kuja stood next to his mount and stared out at the wastelands below. Even if they did take out the Soulcage the issue was pointless, meaning that no matter how hard the Gaians struggled they would never be able to win the war with Terra. "I've been waiting ten years for this day to come! A full decade ago Garland wiped out my best chance to topple him, but now the tables have turned!" gloated Kuja. Out of the corner of his eye the sorcerer caught sight of the others coming to challenge him, evoking a sinister chuckle from the wicked one.
Now I even have an audience... Splendid. Watching her mother die would be a fantastic way to shackle my little canary's heart to her cage once and for all. This is even better than what I was hoping for.
The party hurried up the tree's branches and came to rest on a root parallel to Kuja and his Silver Dragon, where Dagger bravely stepped up and cleared her throat. She wasn't here as Dagger anymore. "I am Princess Garnet Til Alexandros XVII!" she declared boldly, her eyes fiery with determination. "I want you to tell me why you corrupted my mother into that... thing she's become."
"Ha ha ha... Who? Do you mean the brutish whore that destroyed your entire continent?" Kuja cackled. Incensed, Dagger lifted her racket and forcefully swung at Kuja's face, but the sorcerer simply caught the shot between his fingers and crunched it to bits. "My, my, my... How bloodthirsty you are, my lovely little canary," he sneered.
"Oh, I'll show you bloodthirsty..." snarled Zidane.
"It's over, Kuja!" Vivi shouted firmly. "You won't use the black mages as tools of war any longer!"
"For a puppet, you can really talk like a real man... quite the device I cooked up," snickered Kuja. "All you need is a broth of hopeless souls, mix it with a tiny bit of Mist, and you can create a perfectly soulless golem with an actual soul!" he cackled. His breath quickening, Vivi angrily peppered Kuja with all the elemental magic he could muster - fire, frost and lightning, all at once - but Kuja simply snapped his fingers and the spells fizzled, to Vivi's horror. "Can you see the final player arriving?" Kuja asked coolly. "Look to your left and down a bit."
Through her fury Dagger's eye turned slightly to the left and she found, to her horror, that the Alexandrian Navy had arrived at the shores of the Iifa Tree. "No... Mother...!" rasped Dagger. "Why is she here?!"
Kuja threw back his head and laughed at her audacity. "The opening act has finished, and now we move onto the next stage of the performance: 'The end of wicked desires, a dance of death for a tyrant's folly,'" chortled Kuja. He silently cast an eye down to where the Alexandrians had gathered and an even more sinister smile crossed his face. "You know precisely why the elephant lady showed up. She isn't satisfied ruling an entire continent, so she's turned to conquering this one!" he said maniacally. "What boundless greed, such ugliness and hopeless darkness! Truly the nadir of humanity!"
"You did that to my mother, you rotten monster!" Dagger shrieked, her throat coarse from screaming. She lifted her racket and, holding it in both hands, lifted it high over her head, though when the time came her emotions failed her and the princess fell to her knees in tears. As her racket slipped from her grip Dagger bit her lip, tasted blood, and began to sob. "What will satisfy you...?! How much can you take from us?!" she sobbed. "You are humanity's nadir, the most miserable excuse for a human being that has ever lived!"
As Zidane cradled an inconsolable Dagger in his arms his own anger began to build and a thin film of light began to form around his entire body. If and when it came down to a fight, he'd do it entranced and at the peak of his power. "Screw you and your 'performances,'" he snarled, eyes wild with rage. Seeing that girl cry in agony was the one thing he could never forgive him for. "All I want to do right now is make you suffer."
Kuja chuckled and clicked his fingers, summoning two bizarre creatures onto the branch where the party had settled. Kuja's spawn was a monstrous construct of solidified Mist stitched together with dark magic. It was twice the size of a normal human in height, its equal in length, and had a strange beak-like mouth that had Mist oozing from it like it contained dry ice.
Zidane wordlessly drew his daggers and watched as Kuja mounted his Silver Dragon, and as he soared off into the distance the Mistodons let out a shrill shriek of rage as they prepared to attack. The more he watched Dagger suffer, the more he watched her cry, the hotter his heart became, and finally they both lost control and entered Trance at the same time. Zidane, with a single burst of light, and Dagger, with two deft swipes of her powerful fingers - together the two Mistodons were utterly obliterated and the party turned towards the battle that was soon to unfold with sheer hatred in their souls.
Flying high in the sky Kuja snapped his fingers and a horde of winged Mistodons manifested around him, then soared through the air at the Alexandrians with a bloodcurdling shriek. The Alexandrians fought back with all their might, with their cannons and black mages, and despite the fact that the monsters continued to come they seemed to be holding their own. "Stupid whore. If you won't do as you're told," Kuja hissed, "then allow me to present you a juicier target."
While the Alexandrians struggled and Kuja descended towards them, Dagger frantically grabbed onto Eiko's shoulders and shook her wildly back and forth. There had to be a solution! "T-The Eidolon that was sealed here... the one they couldn't handle... Please, give it to me!" Dagger sobbed. "I won't let them kill her!"
"Are you out of your...?! She doesn't deserve your protection anymore!" rasped Zidane. "She isn't your mother anymore!"
"She's the only mother I have, and I'll be damned if I let him take her from me!" Dagger shrieked madly. Zidane stared back at his friend with mixed shock and outrage, though when Eiko pointed down towards a small shrine in the corner of the tree Dagger's eyes widened and her face lit up. "I'm coming, Mother!" she sobbed, pushing Zidane aside and charging down towards the shrine.
As Dagger jolted towards the Eidolon's shrine a band of Mistodons again formed behind them, and as Zidane's emotions broke through he became entranced again and stood ready to fight them all off, even if the odds seemed ridiculously bad. He would not let Dagger die. With the monsters multiplying, however, even his first volley only erased a handful of the Mistodons and Zidane shouted out a curse as they continued to come.
Vivi and Eiko had already begun to chase after Dagger, though Zidane alone remained ready to hold back the onslaught of Mistodons. He suddenly felt a strong hand grab his shoulder and was shocked when Amarant cast him away from the monsters, assuming a defensive stance in preparation to fight the Mistodons alone. Zidane couldn't help but laugh at the redhead's audacity, but he knew that he didn't have time to think and left Amarant to take on the Mistodons.
Dagger finally reached the statue of the Eidolon, a large winged dragon, and skidded to a stop in front of it. As she held her hands to her heart she began to pray, wildly begging for the power to save Brahne. The statue responded and lit up, the shining particles flowing into Dagger's body as she received the blessing of the Master of All Waters. It was a cruel realization, however, when Dagger discovered that the only hope she'd had was just a bitter joke. She could fight now, true; but she'd just obliterate the Alexandrians with Leviathan's Tidal Wave.
The princess fell to her knees and began to sob uncontrollably as Zidane moved to cradle her in his arms as the battle outside of the Iifa Tree was preparing to reach its climax. A swarm of flaming green orbs began to rotate in midair, soon after revealing a large winged form that burst from the summoning circle. It was a large black dragon, silver claws and fiery breath, the Dragon King Bahamut - the second strongest Eidolon that had ever been recorded by the summoner tribe.
Bahamut reared back and breathed out a fire storm of blasts from its mouth, which peppered Kuja and seemed to completely consume him. He emerged, however, with a thin streak of blood dripping down his face and his eyes widened in glee as the sorcerer threw up his arms into the sky. The heavens parted to reveal a large red eye in the sky, a giant harbinger of death that swallowed Bahamut in a stream of multicolored lights.
While Kuja looked on in amusement the Dragon King pivoted towards the Alexandrian Navy, took in a deep breath, and then rained death upon the Alexandrians with such viciousness that hardly any of the ships would survive the onslaught. Queen Brahne had managed to flee on her escape pod, the Blue Narciss, and only barely emerged onto the beach with any semblance of life left in her. Dagger desperately leapt into Brahne's arms and embraced her tightly, tears flowing from her eyes as she saw her mother's breath begin to wane.
"Please, survive!" she sobbed. "I beg of you, Mother!"
When Brahne opened her eyes for the first time in months they lacked the greedy malice that she'd carried as a destroyer of the Mist Continent, finally becoming in her final moments the mother that Dagger had always loved. "With it all over... with all of the greed gone... I thank God that I was given the chance to see my beloved daughter one final time..." Brahne gasped. As Dagger's heart continued to go into overdrive the queen softly brushed the hair from her daughter's face and forced a final smile onto her own. "Pray, become the queen I never was..." she heaved.
Brahne took her final breath, her arms falling limply to her sides. Dagger's emotions, already tense and unstable, finally broke and she threw her arms around her mother, tightened her grip, and began to sob uncontrollably. As her friends looked on in shock Zidane bit his lip and tasted blood, fought back his own tears and tightened his fist as he began to cry as well. His tears weren't for Brahne. Unable to say whether he was happy or sad, all Zidane could feel was the sense that he hated his own weaknesses as he watched his friend bawl her eyes out over her mother's dead body.
Am I sad...? Happy...? No. I just feel... empty...
Final Fantasy IX: The Reason and Right to Exist
Part Two: War of the Jewels
COMPLETE!
Author's Notes
Again, I might be overdoing Dagger... Sorry. This is just the kind of character I want to write: spirited, fiery-hearted with a heart swelled with compassion, emotion, and determination. That and I just wanted to be dramatic. Either/or. And I'll again note that Eiko fawning over Zidane despite being six years old is uncomfortable for me to think of... No western author would touch that with a ten foot pole and a sock on the end so they didn't have to see the stick touch it.
I've also been slacking off on working on this stuff because I'm infatuated with the game of Go. I hadn't played it since high school, which was about two decades ago, so getting back into it really reinvigorated me.