To See Another Day Chapter 14

End Like This?

By Kain Servant

Dodging spears and sword, Freya moved back, arms and legs exhausted beyond comprehension. How many hours had it been? Would they be able to stay on their feet much longer?

Fratley tried to stand in front of her and Puck protectively as they stood, backs to the high city wall. But she could tell he was just as tired as she was. His paw slipped occassionally and twice now a sword had sliced him, once on the arm and on the leg.

They were going to die.

“Maybe I should change religions.” Puck muttered, fitting another loose rock into his makeshift sling and hurling it at the closest target. It rendered him unconscious.

“Makes me want to forget I ever believed, myself.” Fratley grunted toward them, sweeping his lance once again, “How all these beasts I counted as my friends just this morning are now trying to kill me. Simply because…aw hell I don’t know why. See him there? I played cards with him last night. He won.” A quick stab ended “his” life, “Maybe I can pick my money up later.”

Freya moved forward to stand at his side, jumping over a stabbing lance, “Lee? Do you think we’re going to live through today?”

“No.” Fratley caught sight of Kal’s crown, bobbing around a few dozen feet beyond the mass of soldiers surrounding the wall. “Puck? Do you think you can get a rock to smack old King Kal in the noggin? And…keep praying, maybe someone will hear.”

Freya gritted her teeth and stabbed again. They were desperate, but they could do it…she knew they could survive…somehow.

--

It had been hours since anyone had spoken, and Blank couldn’t stand it anymore. Looking up at Steiner, he stood to his feet and wailed, “I can’t believe it! It can’t end like this!”

Steiner looked calmly back at him, “What can’t end like what? Hungry? Thirsty?”

“Steiner…What if…today is the last day of our lives? I didn’t…I didn’t even say goodbye to Eiko.”

That sobered the big knight up. Anything involving love was very meaningful to Steiner. “Oh…don’t worry, Blank. I’m sure this won’t be your last day.”

“How?”

Steiner shrugged with a small smile, “Well…those Fa’al et Delamfor bastards haven’t come yet.”

“Oh that’s encouraging, Al.” Beatrix moaned as she entered carrying a tray with three plates of food. “Don’t tell me you’re all gloomy and doomy too.”

“Well…” Steiner grabbed eagerly for his plate, “I wouldn’t call me…doomy and gloomy, but I’m just looking at the facts.”

“Which are?”

“Well…for one, within a walled city we barely managed to drive back the lesser forms of the warriors we’ll face in a few days. Now we have to face hundreds of the more…threatening fellows, plus a demi-god that even Zidane has no chance against. It’s…threatening to me.”

“And Vivi and Garnet, Zidane and Eiko and Freya might not even be there.” Blank groaned and put his head in his hands, “That’s really bad.”

“Hope.” All heads turned to Amarant, who had been so quiet no one had even noticed his hulking frame in the shadows of the room. “What good is it to us measuring the odds? We never did that before. If we went back now and measured the odds for us ten years ago when we faced Kuja and Necron…they probably were just as bad.”

That brought a new light to everything. Blank hadn’t even thought of it that way. “Amarant…you might be smarter than I thought you were.” That would have been comforting, except he still had the aching feeling that he had never made up to Eiko…the aching feeling in the pit of his stomach that he might not see her again.

--

Eiko stood wistfully at the window of her room, twirling one of Blank’s flowers in her hand. A mass of clouds had settled over the city, and the possibility of rain was high.

She liked rain…it helped wash away the pentup feelings she always kept inside. The frustration toward her father, her fear at all of the tangled events that kept climbing into a sky of nevermore. And her confused love for Blank.

She could see through his eyes now. A little. She was young…he was older, if something had happened that night, and been found it – it would instantly be labelled him taking advantage of her.

But she loved him…Eiko sighed and pulled a petal from the flower. And she knew that he loved her. Oh why did they have to be apart this day of all days? Something was wrong, she could feel it in the pit of her stomach…something was going to happen, and it was very possible that…she would never see him again.

Never. Never was a very strong, scary word. One that she didn’t fully comprehend…it was like when her grandfather died. And though she had told herself he wouldn’t come back, it was hard for years for her to accept that he would never come back. Never ever to see his face again and hear his laugh and his stories.

But then Zidane came…and Zidane had helped her heart for a few years, long enough for her to grow up and accept things. Cid had helped her as well…his fatherly love seemed almost real. Though she knew it was not. But he had helped her much as she grew slowly into an adult.

Painfully. Now Blank. Blank was not a replacement for her grandfather, or something to make the pain go down. He was the best…better than her grandfather, or Zidane or Cid.

And it had all taken place in just a few days. She had gone from a silly girl to a worrying woman and her life was swept into love and now that her love was at its peak the life might end. How could she except never after only a week or her heart fluttering at every smile he made at her. How could she replace his face if he was gone? What would she do…what had she done before?

What if it was the end of all things? That was an even scarier thought.

Cid poked his head in the door and said gently, “Eiko…we need to start working now…we need to help them.”

“Yes father.” She tore another petal from the flower and set it on a downward drift…down to watch it fall into the misty ground below…never to see it again. Never.

“Eiko…I need to talk to you, about Blank.” His tone was serious..and she knew that what was in her heart wasn’t in his, but suddenly she just had to get it out, had to let him know!

“Oh…father.” She let the flower fall and flung herself into his arms. “I don’t know what happened to me…everything was fine and now its all so horrible simply because everything was better. But I want it all, I won’t be able to stand it!”

His arms were very comforting around her. “I know…I’ve been in love…still am. Your mother is very sick but I know she still loves me. And every night I wonder the same thing, Eiko. What if I don’t see her face smiling in the morning. What if the night steals my life while I sleep?”

“Dad…” She was crying now, her head buried on his arm. “It can’t all end this way.”

“It won’t, dear.” His arms gripped her tighter now. “I promise you…every one on this earth wants to live…and we won’t give in to this new threat with our heads in the dirt, I promise you!”

--

Garnet was not quite as offended now as Necron stalked around her, taking in her naked body with every wheezing breath, and laughing. She would bruise him for every single lustful glance he gave her. If she ever got free he would be the most miserable man on the face of the planet!

But would she? This time had had a knife…something he had not brought before. What would happen this time?

“My dear…before I extract pleasure from your body once again, I would like to inform you that Gaia will once again be invaded shortly, and this time it will die. Which means…” Necron laughed happily, “That I will get rid of you and Zidane, and Tialtor will get rid of this accursed world at the same time, and then I’ll be done with Gaia forever! Isn’t that lovely?”

“You’re afraid.” She spat back. She didn’t care what he didn’t anymore…as long as he didn’t kill her she didn’t care. “You know that you won’t complete your plan, and that scares you.”

“Oh please.” Necron took off his robe and moved to stand in front of Garnet, still gazing at her form appreciatively. “I am stronger now than I ever was. Your Zidane would die before he could even try to attack me.” Gently he took one of her breast’s in his hand. “The only thing he has is a wonderful taste for women.”

Garnet shuddered, “You know why you do this? It’s because you’re weak! You’re not really a god!” That stopped him. He blinked up at her, sputtering laughter from his broken lips. She continued, closing her eyes so she did not have to look at him, “You want the world to bow to you, but you are constantly defeated. You use pawns…Kuja, now this Tialtor or whatever. Anything. But there is always someone with a will. A strong will to survive. And that way you can never win!”

“You grow increasingly more absurd, Garnet.” Now Necron’s voice carried a very distinct edge. One that made her squeeze her lids closed. His hands traveled roughly across her belly and he began muttering to himself in a happy, singsong way, “I love your body, Garnet, just consider yourself lucky that you’re so beautiful, or else I would have killed you long ago. Your brain is as hopeless as your cause.

“Think. How did I manage to do all of this? Am I just a powerful man to come back from the dead three times?”

“Yes.” A new revelation struck her, and she opened her eyes. “You’re a very powerful sorcerer to be just a man…but if you really were a god then you should be immortal…what you have is a charm, a cheap charm, just like my ring…that recovers your life somewhat when you are close to death. That is what keeps a wretch of a man like you alive.”

“Cheap?” The words seemed to pass straight over his head as he cradled her hips in his hands and slowly moved his face forward, putting his tongue softly against her belly. Then he retracted it with a laugh, “It’s not cheap to buy immortality, girl. Yes…I’m not invulnerable like a god should be. But I am immortal.” With an impatient sigh he backed away and looked up into her eyes, the way a teacher might look at a student.

“You are…to an extent, correct. I admit it, to you…I am not a god. I am just an extremely powerful wizard. Extremely. My power comes not from myself…I am simply enlightened.

“But as far as you are concerned, I might as well be a god…because I am in ultimate control of your life – your situation, your last few minutes on this earth, I control. I control most everything, not directly, but simply because I know their souls. I control Menoth, and Emryal…you may not know them, but they are the ones in charge of ridding Gaia of you human vermin this time. Kuja tried it before…and he failed, and then Sijel before him, and…Taeln before him. But this time the heroes will not make it to save the day.

“This time the heroes are in my possession, my power. Perhaps fate was not too clear then, but it is all too clear now what the outcome will be. I will finally be able to destroy this world.”

“But why? Why do you want so badly to destroy it?” Garnet could feel the hate boiling around the room, and it scared her. He must be a madman, to do all of it without some purpose. He had to have some reason!

“Why? Because for the first hundred or more years of my life I was a scholar. And I studied people. People’s traits and habits, personalities. Why they do things. And do you know what I discovered?” Garnet made no answer, so Necron continued with a smile, “There is no reason. There is absolutely no reason that they should behave so irrationally. They’re mindless, a wretched cesspool…a blister to anything that can claim to be alive.

“That is why I began following and twisting the fate of the genomes, and the ellians, and the black mages. If I can get rid of you then I can make a world where everyone is the same. Perfect. No hate, no love. My perfect zero world.

“But it always fails…and do you know why? Because everytime I trust a new soulless being, somehow they sprout souls and get moralistic stigmas. You would be long gone now if Zidane hadn’t failed.

“I suppose I’m a perfectionist. That is why it always takes me so long to make a plan…but this time…If should fail – I’ll take out the world myself.” Necron grinned, then advanced again, “Now, back to the more important part of life.”

Garnet knew it was Zidane, flying through the ceiling in a wave of energy, before she even saw his face. And his eyes…his sad, hardened eyes that stared straight at her as he dropped to the floor and stood, energy seeping out his pores.

Necron turned with a smile, “Finally.”


Chapter 15

Final Fantasy 9 Fanfic